Sarah Sjöström steps into a new WC.
But this year she makes an unexpected choice – and stands above a given medal chance.
– I like that arrangement, she says.
Before last year, Sarah Sjöström had won an incredible 27 WC and EC golds, and it’s actually easy to forget that she’s only 29 years old. Sjöström has for over a decade been perhaps the world’s best swimmer, and as soon as championships are announced, medal chances are immediately given.
Unexpected choice
During last year’s WC in long track, in Budapest, there were three new medals. She won gold in the favorite distances of 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly, while also taking silver in the 100m freestyle. Many had perhaps expected the same arrangement in this year’s WC, which begins on Sunday, given the great medal chances.
But now Sjöström makes an unexpected choice. To maximize her chances in her favorite distances, she chooses to jump over the 100 meter freestyle, where she is thus the reigning silver medallist. Something she feels “very safe” with.
– I liked it in Rome (EC last year) to only run the 50-meter distances. Or just and only. There are as many branches as most people run in a championship, but since everyone is used to seeing me swim four or five branches, everything below that feels very little, she tells TT.
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The bet towards two(!) Olympics
However, Sarah Sjöström will not only compete individually. In addition to the 50 meter freestyle and 50 meter butterfly competitions, she will also compete in the 4×100 meter freestyle and 4×100 meter medley team races. There is also a chance that she will run the mixed team race in the medley.
– I feel very satisfied with my setup here. Then it is also a way to extend the career a little. I wouldn’t be able to do it if I ran a hundred branches in every championship, she says.
Sarah Sjöström has previously, for example during the WC 2019, run the 200 meter freestyle and the 100 meter butterfly as well. But now there will be only two individual starts. Sjöström has previously said that she hopes that her career will continue until the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, and smaller branches are a clear way to give the body better long-term conditions.
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