{"id":593116,"date":"2024-07-30T04:17:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T11:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=593116"},"modified":"2024-07-30T04:17:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T11:17:55","slug":"paris-olympics-day-4-prelims-sarah-sjostrom-clocks-only-sub-53-in-100-freestyle-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/paris-olympics-day-4-prelims-sarah-sjostrom-clocks-only-sub-53-in-100-freestyle-qualifying\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics, Day 4 Prelims: Sarah Sjostrom Clocks Only Sub-53 in 100 Freestyle Qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris Olympics, Day 4 Prelims: Sarah Sjostrom Clocks Only Sub-53 in 100 Freestyle Qualifying<\/strong><\/p>\n

At this stage in her Hall-of-Fame career, at her fifth Olympics,\u00a0Sarah Sjostrom<\/strong> has paired down her program. She only raced 50-meter events at the World Championships last year and again in February, although she came away with gold medals in both one-lap races of butterfly and freestyle, lowering her global standard over 50 meters last summer.<\/p>\n

But for her fifth Olympics in Paris, she chose to return to the 100 free, an event where Sjostrom still holds the world record, and that decision could pay off with an Olympic medal. Sjostrom clocked 52.53 for the third-quickest leadoff split on Sweden’s 800 free relay, and she had the best time in the qualifying session of the individual event Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Sjostrom raced in heat two next to the swimmer who broke the Swede’s long-standing world record in the 100 butterfly last month. Walsh took the early lead in the heat and extended the margin to almost a bodylength off the turn, but she struggled down the stretch as Sjostrom and China’s\u00a0Wang Junxuan<\/strong>, the fourth-place finisher in the 200 free Sunday evening,\u00a0overtook her. Sjostrom got the win in 52.99, just ahead of Yang’s 53.05, while Walsh finished all the way back in 53.54.<\/p>\n