2016 ARENA PRO SWIM SERIES AT AUSTIN
- Friday, January 15 – Sunday, January 17
- Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, University of Texas
- Austin, Texas
- Psych sheets
- Meet website
- Live Stream
- Live Results
- Friday Finals Heat Sheet
On Day 1 of the 2016 Arena Pro Swim Series at Austin, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom broke two U.S. Open Records – meaning the fastest swims ever done on American soil.
The first of those two swims came in the 100 meter freestyle (long course), where she won with a 53.12.
The old record was a 53.30 done in 2008 by Australian Cate Campbell when she was only 16 years old.
The time also jumped Sjostrom into 3rd in the 2015-2016 World Rankings, behind just the aforementioned Cate Campbell and her younger sister Bronte Campbell.
Also swimming in this final was American Katie Ledecky, who is the best female distance swimmer in the world, and one of the greatest female swimmers in history. Ledecky is best known for taking the women’s 400, 800, and 1500 meter freestyles (and their yards equivalents) to near-unfathomable levels, but as the Olympics near has been improving her sprint performances as well.
That showed on Friday when she swam a 53.75 in the 100 free – an 8-tenths of a second improvement on her previous lifetime best which was set exactly a year earlier at the 2015 edition of this Austin Pro Swim Series meet.
Ledecky hinted in August that she’s “probably” going to swim the 100 free at the Olympic Trials (at least for a relay spot).
