Top 20 Most Significant Swim Stories Of 2016: #9 – The Slow Burn Of Sjostrom & Coaches

SwimVortex continues a countdown of the most significant swimming stories of Olympic Year 2016.

Our series so far:

10: Mireia, Fred & The Alchemy Of If To When 11: Gregorio The Great 30-Lapper 12: Putting the Great Back Into Britain 13: Masters, Servants & Subsidies – a model of governance that has had its day 14: The ruinous nature of runes in an Olympic year 15: Custodians in Crisis: FINA – Same As It Ever Was 16: The Australia/ China interface highlights questions of faith & fair dinkum 17:  Schools Out; Schooling’s In: aspiration, inspiration and the impact of Michael Phelps 18. The Swimming Selfie 19. The Canadian Comeback  20. On Hosszu Heights

Today, Swedish pioneer, Sarah Sjostrom, Olympic 100m butterfly champion.

No9 – Fly Queen Sarah Sjostrom, Jenner & Vorontsov

Sarah Sjostrom ends 2016 with 16 of the best long-course 50m butterfly efforts ever, including the swiftest 9; with 9 of the best 10 100m ‘fly swims ever, including the swiftest 7 ever – and 15 of the best 25 to boot. And the 200m free: Nos 5, 6, 7 and 12 all-time. It’s been a case of early promise and steady learning curve at the heart of a a slow-burning bright star.

The all-time rankings took on new meaning the moment she stopped the clock before the rest in Rio to become Sweden’s first Olympic swimming champions among women. Never before. She tried in 2008, cam close; she tried in 2012, illness leaving her a frustrating fourth.

Among entries for the top 20 are tales of towering perserverance and sticking with it even when the drop must have hurt like hell: Sjostrom is among the most noticeable examples of that in world-class swimming, her story all the more remarkable, perhaps, because it comes from a program that has not been flushed with challenge in domestic waters since the peak days of Therese Alshammar, that a career worth holding up as a target and example.

What a job from coach Carl Jenner and from another who put his mind, expertise and experience to work for a fine outcome, Andrei Vorontsov. If we look for examples of sustainability on sport, of longevity of elite careers and seek what makes it possible to have  an athlete test the best in the world at 14 and almost every year after that , stroke for stroke, on the way to being at her competitive best when it most counted at 24, then Sjostrom is not a bad place to start.

All good things come to an end – and Sjostrom has now moved on. She sets off to Tokyo under the new coaching direction of Alshammar’s husband, Johan Wallberg. The new start will include a climb back to full fitness after a length break beyond Rio that included a special role as an ambassador for Project Playground, an effort backed by a swim-kit donation from the Swedish sprinter’s sponsor, Arena.

Sarah Sjostrom by PBK

Four Targets – Three Medals, One Gold

Sjostrom had a potential four targets in Rio, freestyle 50, 100 and 200m – and then the one she wants more than any other: the 100m butterfly. She got it: gold.

Go back to Stockholm 1912, when the fairer gender made its debut in Olympic swimming and we find no winners from Sweden. 2016: we have one now.

Therese Alshammar came so close with silver in the 50 and 100m freestyle at Sydney 2000, while Sjostrom had good chances four years ago but was knocked by illness leading into London and fell shy of best and shy of the podium.

On the way to Rio, there were plenty of highlights but the speedy moment that gave the game away as to what might be possible was a 24.43 stunner of a world record over 50m in 2014. It screamed confidence into every sinew in Sjostrom. She knows she can, her body flows and floats on the cognitive. The 100 would not be the same but if you can go 24.43 flat out and 25 mid relaxed, then why not, as Sjostrom did, ponder Mark Spitz and the first sub-55 by a man all those years ago. Why not believe such speed within the bounds of her reach one day. As Carl Jenner, her coach, put it:

“The 50 fly she did in Boras is probably the closest thing to perfection I have seen in 50 fly. Everything worked well but then in 100 fly you can’t have that straight bat in the first 50 because you are working on bringing it home. You have to be a bit more relaxed in the first 50, the body position and the hips are really important because the kick is still driving you forward but you haven’t got the same turnover, the same stroke rate.

“For Sarah’s butterfly the key has been coming out relaxed, it’s getting that easy speed, that front end speed, relaxed out and getting on to the wall fast but relaxed and that gives Sarah the ability to come home on those times on that back end speed that she has.”

Sjostrom’s arrival at the helm of ace at 14 and 15 years old coincided with shiny suits. No telling them what impact those were having though in one so young and displaying fine angles of buoyancy, there was a good chance she would develop into a swimmer chasing the same kind of speed (56 flat at world titles in a shiny suit in 2009). It took six years for her to crack it – a measure of just how impactful the buoy was – and in Sjostrom’s case not all of that was conducive to speed, Jenner believes.

He told SwimVortex’s Liz Byrnes at European Championships in May: “When the suits came along in 2009 she was just developing through and everyone said ah typical suit swimmer. The trouble is with her was that the suit meant she was too high in the water because when she is laying on water, when she floats, she floats incredibly high. She is quite a big lady, she has got quite a lot of muscle, she is quite tall but she floats like a cork.

“That is natural, you can’t teach that, she has that genetically, her body composition means she is able to float very high in the water. The suits meant her kick was coming too high out of the water. The suits helped everyone but I would like to say they didn’t help her as much as they helped some of the other girls in that period of time.

“She’s got a fantastic body position in the water, which is hereditary. You could ruin it by putting too much muscle on her body but basically her body composition is very good for swimming.”

Sarah Sjostrom – by Patrick B. Kraemer

In long-term work, Jenner and Sjostrom have sought a happy marriage of timing and strength. Says Jenner:

“Once you get the timing and the strength of the stroke then it is butterfly and it feels like you are flying.I think it is the most beautiful stroke when people get it right, when people float and fly through the water. It is like an art form.”

It is the thrill in such words that gives it away: Sjostriom will strive to do great things on freestyle but the heart beats that tick faster for butterfly. Says Jenner:

“Sarah was decent at free, back and butterfly but she had something in butterfly. Think because of her body position, she floated so high in the water. She can lay there and lift one leg out of the water and one hand out of the water. I see her as a butterfly swimmer. A butterflyer who is very good at freestyle.”

And with that, we recall the telling moments from the archive that make Sjostrom worthy of our No9 slot in this top 20 list of significant stories from the elite pool in 2016.

From the archive

Rio 2016 – A promise delivered – 100 ‘Fly Gold

There was a time when her heart was questioned. When her ability to handle pressure was questioned. When her resolve was questioned. These days, she’s nothing less than one of the premier figures in the sport, a multi-event star who no longer has to answer the query: Where is your Olympic gold? It’s draped around her neck.

The stockpile of fourth-place finishes at major events that once dotted the portfolio of Sarah Sjostrom was isolated to history on Sunday night, as the Swede opened the second night of finals at the Rio Aquatics Centre in the most impressive way possible. Leading from the start, Sjostrom raced away from the field, especially over the second lap, and set a world record of 55.48, exactly a half-second faster than the global mark Dana Vollmer posted on the way to gold at the 2012 Games in London.

Sjostrom basically competed in a one-woman race, holding a body-length advantage as the athletes headed into the finish. At the touch, Sjostrom turned toward the scoreboard and eventually recognized her achievement, splashing the water in celebration. Her hand then covered her mouth, almost as if to say, “Finally.”

Sarah Sjostrom by PBK

A night after helping Canada to the bronze medal in the 400 freestyle relay, 16-year-old Penny Oleksiak dialed up another World Junior Record, her mark of 56.46 good for the silver medal and better than the 56.73 junior standard she set in prelims. Vollmer was the bronze medalist in 56.63, her hardware complementing the gold from London and completing a feel-good comeback.

In 2011, Sjostrom had the unenviable distinction of finishing just off the podium in a trio of event at the World Championships. Fourth-place finishes in the 200 freestyle, 50 butterfly and 100 fly raised the possibility that Sjostrom didn’t have the moxie to deliver under the glare. That characterization only grew the next summer when she left the Olympics without a medal, crashing out of the semifinals in the 50 freestyle, 100 free and 200 free and placing fourth in the 100 fly.

Sarah Sjostrom by PBK

By 2013, however, Sjostrom began moving in a positive direction. She won the world title in the 100 fly and medaled in the 100 free, following two years later with world crowns in the 50 fly and 100 fly, and medals in the sprint-freestyle disciplines. Along the way, she generated spectacular times on a routine basis, her butterfly efforts taking the stroke to points where it had never been among females. Not surprisingly, a confidence grew.

“The feeling is totally crazy,” Sjostrom said. “I didn’t realize it was a world record. I knew I was the big favorite. I was under pressure, so I tried to focus on no disasters. Before the start, I said to myself it’s just a pool. It’s nothing. I know what to do. I was not so nervous. I was in a good mood today. I knew this was my big chance.”

There are several contenders to leave this Olympiad as the global faces of women’s swimming, Sjostrom among a group that includes American Katie Ledecky, Australian Cate Campbell and Hungarian Katinka Hosszu. The …

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