After World Title and Continental Records, Marrit Steenbergen Wins European Female Swimmer of the Year
On two previous occasions, Marrit Steenbergen had won World Championships gold medals, but both races, one in short course and one in long course, were missing some of the world’s top competitors. Not the case in 2025 as Steenbergen took down two vaunted competitors to secure global gold in the 100 freestyle. The 25-year-old from the Netherlands would add one relay bronze medal in Singapore, and she went on to dominate the European Short Course Championships to close out the year.
Those accomplishments made Steenbergen the choice for European Female Swimmer of the Year, succeeding Sarah Sjostrom as winner after the legendary Swede took the year away from competition. Sjostrom had won the award on four consecutive occasions, and this is the first time since 2012 that a swimmer aside from Sjostrom and Katinka Hosszu had been the winner. Steenbergen becomes the third Dutch swimmer to win this title after fellow sprint specialists Inge de Bruijn (1999-2001) and Ranomi Kromowidjojo (2012).
Sjostrom began the year already considered among the top 100 freestylers in the world after she won gold at the February 2024 edition of the World Championships, a meet numerous top competitors skipped to prioritize their preparation for the Paris Olympics. Steenbergen went on to finish seventh in the event at the Games. But entering this year’s Worlds, she trimmed the 200 IM and 200 free from her lineup to prioritize her main event and make a run at the medals.
The decision paid off as Steenbergen won a nail-biting final. American Torri Huske, the top-ranked swimmer in the world, had the most speed in the final, but she could not hold on after a battle with gastrointestinal illness. That left Steenbergen and Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan in a duel for gold after they flipped in identical times of 25.34 at the halfway point.
O’Callaghan won world titles in this event in 2022 and 2023 by coming from behind, and she had already claimed victory in the 200 free, but Steenbergen would not be denied. Home in 25.34, she touched in 52.55 to claim gold by 0.12.
“At the 75-meter mark, I saw I was slightly ahead, but I knew Mollie just goes so fast in that second 50, and I felt like I was getting tired, so it’s like ‘Okay, just keep going, keep going.’ I tried not to look at her, so it was just at the finish that I knew for sure that I had her,” Steenbergen said. “I don’t know what to feel, I’m just so happy.”
Earlier in the meet, Steenbergen had pulled off a borderline heroic feat in the women’s 400 free relay on the meet’s opening day. The Dutch team had fallen to eighth place and more than a second out of medal position when Steenbergen entered the water for the anchor leg, but she split 51.64, by far the quickest of anyone in the field. One by one, she picked off her competitors on the way to a thrilling bronze medal.
After Worlds, Steenbergen would return to major competition in December with the European Short Course Championships, where she showed off her versatility on the way to six gold medals. She set European records on her way to gold in the 100 IM and 200 free in one night, then the 200 IM and 100 free in two days later, moving into the top-four in history in all four races. She finished off the meet with another European record in the 50 backstroke leading off the Dutch women’s 200 medley relay, jumping to No. 6 all-time while leading a golden effort.
Those accomplishments on the global and continental level, a combination of big-race performance plus remarkable versatility, have secured Steenbergen’s status among the best swimmers in the world.