Sarah Sjostrom has been having a good weekend at the Swedish Championships, swimming a world-leader in the 100 fly, then progressing to an all-time textile-best in the 50 free.
Her swim on Sunday evening, however, blows them all away.
The 20-year old swam a 24.43 in the women’s 50 fly, which is the biggest crushing of a sprint World Record we’ve seen in decades.
The old Swedish and World Record belonged to her teammate Therese Alshammar in 25.07 from the 2009 World Championships. This swim from Sjostrom knocked over six-tenths from that record, or roughly 2.5%. That’s the equivalent of knocking 23 seconds off of the 1500 free World Record, or lowering the women’s 100 back world record to a 56-mid.
The next-fastest swimmer this year is Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen-Gray in a 25.27; Sjostrom’s old personal best was just a 25.52 from earlier this year. She’s never been quite as good in the 50 fly as she has been in the 100 fly, until now.
That swim from Sjostrom is a FINA B cut for men: a standard that only two other World Records match (or even come close to): Katie Ledecky’s 800 and 1500 freestyle swims. BY comparison, Michael Phelps swam a 50 fly earlier this year, and was just a 24.0 – not much faster than Sjostrom’s swim on Saturday. The time was also just .05 seconds short of the short course meters world record.
The swim is worth 1080 FINA Points, which by their calculation is even faster than Ledecky’s World Record swims.
Sjostrom has been a star for years, and even a super star, but she’s now moving into a territory where she’ll challenge as the best swimmer in the world. It’s safe to say that this is a generational-type performance, a swim that will be remembered for a long, long time.
Expect race video to be out shortly; we’ll post it when we find it.
What is her fathers name?
Could we put on the table the question to know if butterfly would become more efficient than crawl for the (very) short distances in the future?
If you are swimming coach you can see watching the tape what she is doing, which leads to her time, and do not immediately just shrug it off and talk about the big d…. Watch the tape and learn.
This is very interesting. She drops a full second on from her personal best an no one is suspicious. Ye Shiwen breaks a shiny suit record by a smaller margin and everyone screams dope!
You could say the same about Ledecky in 2012, how much did she Improve by in a single year? I think it was like 30 seconds or something ridiculous. The only person I have seen saying “Why are we suspicious of Ye, but not Kathleen?” Is Aswimfan… Suddenly Sjoestroem (a non-American) swims a superb, unbelievable time and what do we say, “Why is nobody suspicious?”…
You can rate my comment down all you want, but you know it’s true – If Sjoestroem is suspicious, Kathleen Ledecky must be… you could use the argument I often see thrown about, “China have a history of doping”.. well, compared the Sweden, the US have a history of doping…
They’re all suspicious.
Seriously, just given that they’re professional athletes and the best in the world at what they do is enough for me to assume they’re all on something.
Helps to not be too heartbroken over failed doping tests, too.
Because Ye Shiwen was 16 and from China (a country whose athletes we assume are strictly controlled workhorses/robots like Drago in Rocky IV), while Sarah Sjostrom is 20 and a blonde, fair skinned girl from Sweden (a country we buy cheap furniture from and generally think is adorable). That’s probably going to get downvoted into oblivion, but oh well.
Seriously, though, I wondered the same thing when I read through the comments the first time. I think if Ye Shiwen’s last 50 hadn’t been faster than Ryan Lochte’s in the same event, the outcry would have been negligible. I also agree with Steve, below. In my mind, the more money and publicity a sport gains, the more probable it becomes… Read more »
*Steve, above
Just a point of view on the question whether there was or was not the public outcry accusing Ye Shiwen?
If I remember it correctly it all started from US coach John Leonard describing Ye’s swim as disturbing and unbelievable. The words that were widely quoted in the English-speaking media such as The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/jul/30/ye-shiwen-world-record-olympics-2012
But what was a real reaction from the public? Was there public outcry accusing Ye Shiwen? Have a look at the results of the poll made by the same news outlet on their website (Question: Does Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen deserve an apology?):
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/poll/2012/jul/31/does-ye-shiwen-deserve-apology
98% of voters thought Ye Shiwen indeed deserves an… Read more »
You’re quoting figures that are representative of the British left, not a universal opinion. 98% of (presumably British) readers of notoriously left-wing British tabloid believe Ye Shiwen deserved an apology. How can that be construed as a universal opinion?
There is a glaringly obvious inequality in how we welcome superb performances from European’s, Australian’s, Canadian’s & American’s and the Chinese.
I have watched the 400IM final hundreds of times by now, and I came to one conclusion. Ye has the most efficient and sustainable rhythm on each individual stroke. Go and watch the race, take notice of a few things..
1. Ye barely kicks on her fly leg, yet she still split 1.02 – from the above and side… Read more »
Type “Ye Shiwen ” into Google and see what the frequently searched items are when that box drops down. “Ye Shiwen 2014,” “Ye Shiwen cheat,” “Ye Shiwen steroids,” and “Ye Shiwen 2013” are what comes up for me.
You are right, though, to say that this is sensationalized by the media when they just post “Ye Shiwen closes faster than Lochte.” The problem is that the people who only see that headline and a picture of a female Chinese athlete with no context automatically assume she is doping in some way.
To build on my comment, look up articles on this site from around London. There is a very strong portion of the comment base implying or straight up stating that she was on some form of PED.
http://swimswam.com/oh-ye-of-little-faith/
http://swimswam.com/chinas-ye-shiwen-makes-history-400-im-analysis/
http://swimswam.com/lochte-tops-400-im-phelps-misses-podium-altogether/
I, for one, am suspicious. It’s just that doping isn’t at the top of my list of explanations.
I think wind might have helped 3 tenths worth. I also think there’s a chance the pool was short, or that the timing malfunctioned.
Further, another few tenths could be explained by the perfect finish and start. Assuming the pool and timing were legit, I wouldn’t expect better than a 24.8 next time around, between the tailwind and perfect finish. She seemed to go full Lezak and pull out a swim that will not be easily replicated, regardless of wind etc.
You don’t have to assume that the pool wasn’t short and that the timing malfunctioned. The land of the angstrom know how to measure a pool and a certificate will be added to the WR application to be sent to FINA as well as the results of the doping test. And the timing is Omega – no comments necessary. I know that the time of Sarah is hard to really understand, but let’s keep the analysis focused on her performance!
Wowww!
6 tenths in a 50…imagine if Cielo went 20.3, or even just 6 tenths off the TWR for 20.7.
Unreal.
Are they sure that there wasn’t a timing malfunction or wind advantage? Or something that can explain a ridiculous time like this? Amazing.
She’s about half second off of the record for freestyle. Men are 1.4 seconds off, and for that matter both sexes are about 4 seconds off the freestyle marks in the 100s, which is a heck of a lot more than 0.5 seconds per 50.
On the Interntional Points System for swimming (IPS points on Swimnews) it scores 1046…Phelps’ 400 IM and Piersol’s 200 back (the non-textile ones) score around 1022.
The… Read more »
Mcgill- Super sprint breastroke is not really a stroke .It is a morpheus of dolphin kick interspersed with a outwards thrust & down beat leg action topped with an over the water recovery & of often non parallel hands & a dive .
It is understandable people want to finish quickly . It looks atrocious unlike the majestic Sarah who looks like a swan.
I need to change my underwear.
Ok men of the swimming world, time to pick it up! You’re coming no where close to performing on the level of the women!
Poster above would like to remind you that Phelps is in fact .4 faster. Lol. Then apologist number 2 says – oh he is not a 50 m swimmer.
Too funny .
There have always been swimmers who were as fast in fly over a short distance rhan their free . It just took someone who also has a good free to put ittogether. Freestyle allows extra extension on thefinish .plus being more forgiving on it’s timing
But yeah – move over men .More to see with the gals.
Not to take anything away from this incredible swim, I’d still say Ledecky’s WR 8:11 swum as 4:05.7-4:05.3 is more impressive given that 4:05 is faster than any other American other than herself in the past 2 years, and she swam the 8:11 at the end of 5000m of racing at that meet in Texas. Hard to compare Sjostrum and Ledecky’s performances, and I think we will have to wait til the end of the summer to judge their years. Both impressive – how many times have 3 WRs in total been broken this early into the LCM championship season??
Really? Wow. In my opinion they are not even in the same league. Ledecky’s 8.11 was a great WR, but Sjostrom’s relative margin of improvement is 4.4 times (!) larger than Ledecky’s, and the old WR was achieved in a now banned suit. Sjostrom’s WR is totally ridiculous, easily among the most impressive in modern swimming history.
Agreed . There are two evaluators – as a percentage of mens ‘ times & the rate of improvement over x years.
The 800 is really only 5 secs better than Janet in 1989 whereas Sarah’s effort is faster than the wr for 50 free in the 1990 s . ( I should look it up ) .
As a. percentage of men’s time women can get to 109% in endurance events but super power / agility gravity events eg high jump/ pole vault 115 % is impressive . For sprints 110-112 % is excellent . I would put swimming in at the 110% range . Interestingly at the same meet eg 2013 worlds several girls reached 110 %… Read more »
In early 2000, Inge de Bruijn swam 24.48 and broke Le Jingyi’s WR from 1994 of 24.51.
And Sarah’s fly is FASTER than that!