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Sarah Sjostrom Savours Status As Olympic Champion At The Start Of New Chapter
- Updated: September 29, 2016
The Rio 2016 Olympics long gone, SwimVortex continues its look at the reflections of the champions and others who stepped up to the podium at the Games in August, at the things that flowed from success and plans already made for the follow-up.
After the men’s 50m freestyle and Anthony Ervin and the 100m freestyle and Kyle Chalmers, we turned to Joseph Schooling, the US-college-based ace from Singapore, and then to the woman swimmer of the Games and generation, Katie Ledecky.
Today: Swedish pioneer, Sarah Sjostrom, Olympic 100m butterfly champion
Sarah Sjostrom peered up at the scoreboard in confusion and had to look “100 times before I’d understood what had happened” at the end of the Olympic two-lap freestyle final in Rio. She had battled for her third medal of the week – a bronze that completed her collection of colours after gold and silver – in what turned out to be one of the most bizarre results in Olympic history.
On a sizzling world record of 52.06sec just a month before the Rio Games, Australian Cate Campbell had entered the fray as clear favourite for the crown. Delivery of gold in world record time in the 4x100m free with a closing 51.97 split at the start of the meet seemed to confirm that even if Campbell feel alf a second shy of best in the solo event, she had that kind of margin on her side for safety’s sake.
Come the hour: shared gold for Penny Oleksiak (CAN) and Simone Manuel (USA), on 52.70, Sjostrom on 52.99 for bronze. Then Bronte Campbell, the Australian world champion locked out in 53.04; then Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED), the defending champion and also within 0.1 of the medals, at 53.08; and then Cate, on 53.34, the 38th best effort of her career on a list with 31 swims of 53.0 or better.
In Rome this week with Team Arena and while relaxing with a glass of sparkling and her beau and fellow Olympic champion Ferry Weertman, Kromowidjojo recalled:
“It was weird. I couldn’t really believe what I was seeing. There was this 53.3-something next to Cate’s name, two [winners] … it was so strange.”
Sarah Sjostrom flies to gold and the world-record in Rio – by Patrick B. Kraemer
Sarah Sjostrom – Olympic champion – by Patrick B. Kraemer
Sjostrom, gold in the treasury in world-record time in the 100m butterfly and a silver that “feels like gold to me” a touch behind swimmer of the age, Katie Ledecky (USA), in the 200m freestyle, felt no differently. In Rome for a gathering of Team Arena, photo-shoots and fun with her sponsor this past week, Sjostrom told SwimVortex:
“First of all, I was watching my own result, saw the time and saw third and then thought ‘what’s going on?’ … I saw the American and Canadian girls had shared first. I didn’t really understand what was going on. It was so hard to take in. I had to look up 100 times before I’d understood what had happened.”
When the result had sunk in, the field made for the side to climb out. Sjostrom and Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen hesitated as they reached the deck, the race done, competitive spirit set down, the empathy of swim sprint sisters holding them back. They waited until Campbell the elder reached them and then offered the pre-race favourite consolation.
What words were spoken? A helping hand, knowing eye contact spoke louder, says Sjostrom:
“You can’t really say much in that moment. No words will help. We just tried to show her our support. There are a lot of things going on outside the pool at a Games. You can never tell. She’d set the world record a few weeks before. It’s not easy to go into an Olympic final as a favourite.”
Sarah Sjostrom by PBK
Sjostrom knows the feeling. She was a medal hope in 2008 soon after becoming a European 100m butterfly champion at just 15; then again a medal and title challenger at London 2012. Fourth, arguably the worst of fates.
Rio 2016 sank the past from page to footnote in swimming history. What Sjostrom will now be remember for is not the near miss but the bullseye, the ultimate prize in the pool: Olympic gold. What she will be remembered for is becoming Swedish swimming’s biggest ever Olympic medal hauler at a single Games.
Had it all sunk in when she arrived home to a great reception in Sweden?
“It was great to come home. We were in Rio for three weeks and I was very tired there in the last days and so it was hard to fathom what it meant. I was able to relax in Stockholm for a long time and then I had a vacation in New York. Then it starts to sink in.”
Joy the conclusion? “Yes, I’m so happy,” says Sjostrom.
“It was my third Olympics and I felt a lot of pressure on me on the way to the Games. Alot I put on myself: I really wanted to be successful; I wanted that gold medal in the 100 ‘fly. That was the best chance to win gold in my Olympic career and wanted it so much to make those 55 seconds the best of my life.”
Sarah Sjostrom by Patrick B. Kraemer
Sarah Sjostrom – Olympic champion – by PBK
Everything about her build-up, her season, the consistency of speed she had shown throughout the Olympic cycle to Rio, suggested that Sjostrom was among those on the list of ‘safest predictions of gold’. She took nothing for granted.
With a nod to the large club of those who arrived at a Games favourite for gold before leaving with a different outcome, Sjostrom added: “I knew that the favourite doesn’t always win the race. I needed to relax; I just had to try to remember ‘I have been swimming fast all the season so just keep doing it’.”
Still, a big moment. What are the things that make confidence a louder whisper than doubt come the hour?
“I was standing behind the blocks and just tried to remember how …
