STOCKHOLM : Sarah Sjostrom may be the most senior team member as she heads into her fifth Olympics, but the Swedish swimmer feels she is far from a grizzled veteran and still has a lot more to give in the pool.
Sjostrom – an Olympic gold medal winner in Rio in 2016, a 20-times world champion and holder of multiple long-course world records – will bring all her vast experience to Paris, where she will compete in the 50m and 100m freestyle events.
“I’ve done this a few times now – it’s not going to be anything new, and I definitely have a lot of experience from other competitions now, so that gives a lot of confidence,” she told Reuters ahead of her team’s departure to France.
Sitting in a low-slung chair at a hotel in Eskilstuna, around 100 kilometers from Stockholm, Sjostrom was her usual self ahead of a major championships – relaxed, but very much focused on the task in hand.
“I can ask the younger kids for advice too, we help each other. I think that’s important and that’s maybe a big part of my success too,” she said.
“I think we have a very nice vibe in the team, I really like it.”
But however much the Swedes might like to give the impression no-one in the team is more important than anyone else, Sjostrom’s achievements speak for themselves.
CAREER CONSISTENCY
“That’s something I’m very proud of, the consistency I had throughout my career. I’ve had a lot of different events, so like 50 free, 50 fly, 200 free, 100 free. I have medals in most big main competitions in those, and I had world records in a lot of them,” she said.
“Of course, that’s something I’m very proud of, and I think the something that helped me to get there is that I had the right people around me throughout my career – the right coaches and the right staff and the right support.”
That set-up has brought one Olympic gold medal in the 50m butterfly as well as two silver and one bronze in freestyle events, alongside a slew of world and European championship medals in short and long-course.
Having originally said she would only take part in the 50m freestyle in Paris, Sjostrom recently announced that the favourable scheduling had changed her mind and that she would also compete in the 100m free.
As one of Sweden’s best-known athletes, she is used to having to bear the nation’s expectations of Olympic medals.
“It’s not the first time I have a lot of pressure on me – I’ve done this since 2008 and most of the times, I come into the competitions with other people expecting me to be better than ever and win a lot of medals and break records,” Sjostrom said.
“And also for myself of course, I want to be better than ever now when I come to the Olympic Games … and I’m used to that now and I’ve done it many times before, so shouldn’t be a problem this time.”
