PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Former great swimmer Stefan Nystrand, 42, is making an international comeback in the Swim Open in Stockholm.
The dream goal:
– It would be great fun if the long-course EC swim goes really well, he says.
Stefan Nystrand is one of the big profiles in Swedish swimming. For over ten years from the end of the 90s until the 2012 Olympics, the sprinter won a number of medals, above all in the short track, where there were eleven EC gold medals, six of which were individual.
But he also took a World Cup long course bronze in the 50m free in 2007 and in the 2004 Olympics he was just six hundredths from bronze.
He retired after his 2012 London Olympics, his fourth Olympic Games. Then he made a brief comeback the following year and swam teams in the short course EC.
Make a comeback
Now he is doing his first international competition in eleven years – and participated on Thursday in a press meeting ahead of the competition, which runs Friday-Monday in Eriksdalsbadet.
– It’s a bit fun that people are interested. It’s fun that it’s international, it’s professional. You get tagged, he says of the feelings before the comeback.
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He will swim the 50m freestyle on Monday and has taken time off from his job as a construction consultant to compete. But the family, wife Lisa and three daughters, cannot be there. The trial race takes place in the morning.
– It’s work and school then, he says.
National team place
Nystrand already competed in the short course SC in November in Gothenburg, won two golds in the team race and came fifth in the 50 meter freestyle individually.
Afterwards, he was offered a place as a team swimmer for the short course EC in Romania by the national captain Martina Aronsson.
– It was great that she called. I was in the selection and qualifying, but I was quite tired after the SM week. Then I opened up to continue this spring with a long track season and if Martina wants to take me out now, it’s more on my terms, he says.
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Nystrand still holds the Swedish record in both the 50 and 100 meter freestyle in both the long and short course.
Now it is the long track that applies and the qualifying time for a place at the EC in Belgrade in June is 22.24.
– It takes a lot to get down to it, but it is a target time, not a sharp limit. And then there are more qualifying opportunities, says Nystrand, who this year did 22.85.
So why does he want to make a comeback at 42?
– I would like to know how fast I can be with my conditions, he says.
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But everything is clearly not as before.
– The head wants more than the body. I’m groping a bit blindly when it comes to recovery and how much I can push myself, he says.
Sweden’s men have qualified the 4×100 meter freestyle team for the Olympics in Paris this summer. But Nystrand says that 100 meters is too far.
– It is probably not relevant for an Olympic place. I don’t know if SOK wants to take out an old man. We already have four fast guys, he says.
READ MORE: Icon Therese Alshammar’s serious concern after Sarah Sjöström’s new WC gold success: “The biggest problem”
The international swimming competition in Stockholm has attracted 820 swimmers from 27 participating countries.
The competitions are decided Friday-Monday.
Breaststroke star Arno Kaminga, Netherlands, double Olympic silver in Tokyo, and Dane Helena Rosendahl Bach Denmark, World Cup silver in the 200 meter butterfly in Doha, are some of the foreign profiles.
Sarah Sjöström is the competition’s biggest star. She swims the WC gold events 50 meter butterfly (on Friday) and 50 meter freestyle (Sunday). Sjöström also competes in the 100 meter freestyle (Monday).
WC bronze medalist Louise Hansson, Sophie Hansson, Michelle Coleman, Victor Johansson and Erik Persson are other Swedish profiles.
The competitions apply both as Olympic and WC selection.
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