Sarah Sjostrom Breaks 50 Free World Record (23.61) 17 Minutes After Winning 50 Fly Gold (original) (raw)

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Just 17 minutes after winning her fifth-straight World title in the 50 fly, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom took down the 50 free world record in the semi-finals of the event. She swam a time of 23.61, which shaves 0.06 seconds off of her previous world record time of 23.67 from 2017.

Sjostrom now holds four of the top five times in the history of the women’s 50 free.

All-Time Top Performances, Women’s 50-Meter Freestyle:

  1. Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden — 23.61 (2023)
  2. Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden — 23.67 (2017)
  3. Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden — 23.69 (2017)
  4. Brita Steffen, Germany — 23.73 (2009)
  5. Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden — 23.74 (2018)

Sjostrom’s first world record came in 2009, when she took down the 100 fly world record at the age of 15. She is now 29, which means 14 years came between her first and most recent world record.

Headed into finals, Sjostrom will be the top seed by a considerable margin—0.4 seconds ahead of Australia’s Shayna Jack.

In the 50 fly final that came before Sjostrom’s world record, she swam a time of 24.77, which is the sixth-fastest performance in the history of the event. She holds the top 20 fastest performances ever in the 50 fly. Her most recent in the event was her 20th individual World Championships medal, tying her with Michael Phelps as the swimmer with the most individual medals in World Championships history.

In This Story

Michael Phelps
Sarah Sjöström
Shayna Jack

About Yanyan Li

Yanyan Li

Although Yanyan wasn't the greatest competitive swimmer, she learned more about the sport of swimming by being her high school swim team's manager for four years. She eventually ventured into the realm of writing and joined SwimSwam in January 2022, where she hopes to contribute to and learn more about …

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