Sarah Fredrika Sjöström (Swedish: [ˈsɑ̂ːra ˈɧø̂ːstrœm]; born 17 August 1993) is a Swedish competitive swimmer specialising in the sprint freestyle and butterfly events. She is one of the most decorated swimmers of all time.
As of 2024, Sjöström has won a total of 23 individual medals at long course World Championships, more than any other swimmer in history. She was the first female swimmer to win five individual medals at a single FINA World Aquatics Championships, a feat she accomplished in 2019. In 2021, Sjöström achieved a career total of over 1000 most valuable player points in the International Swimming League, becoming the first swimmer in history to do so. In 2022, she became the first swimmer from any country to have won a total of 28 medals at LEN European Aquatics Championships. She has won a total of 112 medals at Swimming World Cups.
Sjöström is the current world record holder in the 50 metre butterfly (long course). She is a former world record holder in the 50 metre freestyle (long course and short course), 100 metre butterfly (long course and short course), 100 metre freestyle (long course and short course), 200 metre freestyle (short course), and the 4×50 metre medley relay (short course). She is the first Swedish woman to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming. She won the Overall Swimming World Cup in 2017 and 2018. In 2022, she became the first swimmer representing a country in Europe to win 10 individual World Championships gold medals.
Sjöström participated in five consecutive Olympic Games, from Beijing 2008 through Paris 2024. She has won six Olympic medals: three gold (100 metre butterfly, 100 metre freestyle and 50 metre freestyle), two silver (200 metre freestyle and 50 metre freestyle), and one bronze (100 metre freestyle).
On 22 March 2008, at the age of 14, Sjöström won the gold medal in the 100 metre butterfly at the 2008 European Aquatics Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands, with a time of 58.44 seconds. In the semi-finals the day before, she set a new Swedish record of 58.38 seconds, breaking the previous record of 58.71 seconds by Anna-Karin Kammerling. Three days earlier, she won her first medal of the Championships in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay, contributing a split time of 56.17 for the third leg of the relay in the preliminary heats before being substituted out for the finals relay and winning a bronze medal for her efforts when the finals relay placed third in 3:41.28. At the Swedish championships in 2008 in the same event, she finished in a time of 58.55 seconds.
Sjöström earned a spot on the Swedish Swim Team for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, where she finished 27th in the preliminary heats of the 100 metre butterfly with a time of 59.08 and 29th in the preliminary heats of the 100 metre backstroke with a time of 1:02.38, failing to advance to the semi-finals in both races. She also swam the backstroke leg of the 4×100 metre medley relay in the preliminaries, in which the Swedish team qualified in seventh place for the finals, though the team went on to be disqualified in the final for a false start. The day of the 4×100 metre medley relay final coincided with Sjöström's 15th birthday.
On 26 July 2009, at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, Sjöström set a world record in the semifinals of the 100 metre butterfly with a time of 56.44 seconds, surpassing Inge de Bruijn's nine-year-old record. The next day, in the final of the event, she won the gold medal and improved her world record time to 56.06 seconds at just 15 years, 344 days of age.
At the 2010 European Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Sjöström defended her European title in the 100 metre butterfly by winning the event. With a split time of 53.77 seconds for the third leg of the 4×100 metre freestyle relay in the final, she helped Sweden win the bronze medal in a time of 3:38.81. For the 4×100 metre medley relay, she anchored the relay in the final with a time of 53.73 seconds to help her country finish in 4:01.18 and win the silver medal. In December 2011, she broke the Swedish record when she won the 100 metre freestyle at the Open Dutch Championships in Eindhoven. However, she failed to win a medal at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai.
At the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai, China, Sjöström competed in five events, first placing fourth in the 100 metre butterfly with a time of 57.38 seconds, which was 0.32 seconds behind bronze medalist Lu Ying of China. In her next event, the 200 metre freestyle, she placed fourth, finishing less than nine-tenths of a second behind world record holder in the event and gold medalist Federica Pellegrini of Italy with a time of 1:56.41. The following day, she helped achieve a time of 8:02.30 and overall placing of twelfth in the 4×200 metre freestyle relay, splitting a 1:57.84 for the third leg of the relay in the preliminaries. Two days later, on the final day of competition, she contributed to an overall placing of tenth in the 4×100 metre medley relay, swimming the backstroke portion of the relay in 1:01.24 in the preliminaries to help achieve a time of 4:02.71 that did not qualify the relay for the evening final. Later in the day, she finished outside the podium in her third and final individual event, this time tying Lu Ying for fourth-place in the final of the 50 metre butterfly with a 25.87.
For Sjöström, 2012 was a year of both successes and setbacks. At the 2012 European Aquatics Championships, held in early summer in Debrecen, Hungary, she achieved double gold medals in her individual events, with one in the 50 metre butterfly and one in the 100 metre freestyle. In her relay event, the 4×100 metre freestyle relay, she helped her team win the silver medal in a final time of 3:38.40, swimming the third leg of the relay in 54.04 seconds.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Sjöström competed in four individual events, reaching the semi-finals of the 50 metre freestyle, 100 metre freestyle and 200 metre freestyle, and placing fourth in the final of the 100 metre butterfly with a time of 57.17 seconds. Sjöström's world record was broken in this race by Dana Vollmer of the United States. In 2015, Sjöström regained the world record by improving it twice at the World Championships, held in Kazan, Russia.
On 29 July 2013, Sjöström won the gold medal in the 100 metre butterfly at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships, in Barcelona, Spain, with a time of 56.53 seconds, which was 0.44 seconds faster than silver medalist Alicia Coutts of Australia and 0.71 seconds faster than bronze medalist Dana Vollmer. Four days later, she won a silver medal in the 100 metre freestyle, finishing 0.55 seconds behind a first-time world champion in the event, Cate Campbell of Australia, with a time of 52.89 seconds.
2013 European Short Course Championships
At the 2013 European Short Course Swimming Championships in December in Herning, Denmark, Sjöström won four medals in individual events, a gold medal in the 50 metre butterfly with a Championships record of 24.90 seconds, a gold medal in the 100 metre butterfly, a silver medal in the 50 metre freestyle, and a silver medal in the 100 metre freestyle, and two medals in relay events, one silver medal each in the 4×50 metre freestyle relay and 4×50 metre medley relay.
On 5 July 2014, Sjöström broke the world record in the long course 50 metre butterfly, set at 25.07 by fellow Swedish swimmer Therese Alshammar in 2009, with a time of 24.43 seconds. The margin of 0.64 seconds by which she lowered the world record compared to the prior record has been juxtaposed with Bob Beamon's 1968 long jump world record. At the 2014 European Aquatics Championships, held in Berlin, Germany later that summer, she won three gold medals and four silver medals. On 18 August, she and her Swedish relay teammates won the gold medal in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay. The next day she also won the final of the 50 metre butterfly. On 20 August, the she won her third gold medal, this time in the 100 metre freestyle. She also won silver medals in the 4×200 metre freestyle relay, 100 metre butterfly, 50 metre freestyle and 4×100 metre medley relay.