Sarah Sjöström

Sarah Sjöström
Sarah Sjöström (2013)
Personal information
Surname:	Sarah Fredrika Sjöström
Nation:	Sweden
Swimming style (s) :	Butterfly, freestyle, back
Society:	Södertörns Simsällskap
Birthday:	17th August 1993
Place of birth:	Salem
Size:	1.81 m
Weight:	80 kg
Medal table

Sarah Fredrika Sjöström (born August 17, 1993 in Salem ) is a Swedish swimmer . She is considered the child prodigy of Swedish swimming and celebrated her first major success at the World Championships in Rome in 2009 , where she became the first Scandinavian female swimmer to win the gold medal over the 100-meter butterfly course. She was able to repeat this success at the World Championships in 2013 and 2015 . At the 2016 Olympic Games , she also won the gold medal in this discipline.

Career

Sarah Sjöström was born the second of four children. She came into contact with swimming at the age of nine through a friend after her family had moved to Handen from the Stockholm district of Västertorp . In the 5th grade, she speculated about ending her athletic career before success in the junior sector. After victories at youth championships and a surprising medal win at the Swedish championships, coach Thomas Jansson became aware of Sjöström. In 2007 she won a full set of medals at the European Summer Youth Olympic Festival and then switched to the seniors.

Sjöström made his breakthrough among the seniors at the 2008 European Championships in Eindhoven, the Netherlands . In the semi-finals of the 100 m butterfly, the 14-year-old set Anna-Karin Kammerling's Swedish national record with a time of 58.38 s and in the final she won against Inge Dekker, who is almost eight years older from the Netherlands . With her European title, Sjöström was the youngest Swedish athlete to win an Olympic competition in international championships. The student then received a nomination for the Swedish squad for the Summer Olympics in Beijing , where she was unable to build on the previous success. In the preliminary heats, Sjöström finished in the 100 m butterfly (59.08 s) and 100 m back (1: 02.38 min) only a 27th and 29th place respectively, while the Swedish individual medley relay in the finals, where she was used as the starting swimmer was disqualified after a faulty replacement. In December 2008 she took part in the European Short Course Championships in Rijeka , where she won the silver medal behind the Netherlands with the Swedish freestyle relay and the finals over the 50 m butterfly (7th place; 26.10 s), 100 m freestyle (6. Place; 53.45 s) and 100 m butterfly (6th place; 57.40 s) without winning an individual medal.

At the 2009 Olympic Games, Sjöström prevailed at the Swedish Sports Galan ( Svenska idrottsgalan ), including against ice hockey player Fabian Brunnström and cross-country skier Emil Jönsson , and won the young talent award. In the same year, the 15-year-old, who counts the American Michael Phelps as one of her role models, celebrated her greatest sporting success to date. At the World Championships in Rome , Sjöström was the first Scandinavian swimmer to secure the title over the 100-meter butterfly distance in the world record time of 56.06 s and relegated the Australian Jessicah Schipper and the Chinese Jiao Liuyang to their places. In the preliminary stages and in the semi-finals, she had already beaten the Swedish record and the more than eight-year-old world record of Dutch Inge de Bruijn . In the 50 m butterfly, Sjöström finished sixth in 25.66 seconds, and fifth with the Swedish 4 × 100 m freestyle relay.

At the 2015 World Championships , she won the 100 m butterfly with a new world record. In addition, she won the 50 m butterfly.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro , Sjöström won the gold medal in the 100 m butterfly and silver in the 200 m freestyle behind the US Olympic champion Katie Ledecky and the bronze medal in the 100 m freestyle in a world record time of 55.48 seconds .

At the 2017 World Championships in Budapest , she won the titles over 50 and 100 meters butterfly and over 50 m freestyle, where she improved Britta Steffen's world record from 2009 to 23.67 seconds in the semifinals . In addition, as the starting swimmer of the Swedish 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, she set a new world record with 51.71 seconds; in the individual competition she came second behind the American Simone Manuel on this route .

At the European Championships in Glasgow in 2018 she won four gold medals: over 100 m freestyle and 100 m butterfly, as well as on both 50 m courses.

Awards

• World swimmer of the year : 2017
• European Swimmer of the Year : 2017, 2018
• Sweden's Sportswoman of the Year : 2015, 2017

Web links

Commons : Sarah Sjöström  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sarah Sjöström in the Swimrankings.net database (English)
• Profile at Svenska Simförbundet (Swedish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} cf. Melander, Victor: Sarah Sjöström: "Höll på att drunkna" ( Memento of the original from August 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at expressen.se, July 29, 2009 (accessed on July 30, 2009) 
2. ↑ cf. Bergfeldt, Anders: Poolens härskarinna at svd.se, November 8, 2008 (accessed July 30, 2009)
3. ↑ Sweden´s Sarah Sjostrom Breaks World Record in 100 Fly
4. ↑ swim.de - 50 m butterfly 23 moves + 0 x breathing = World Cup gold for Sjöström