Sarah Sjöström Now Owns the 10 Fastest 100 Fly Times in History

2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

With her 55.96 in heats and 55.77 in semi-finals, Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström now owns the top 10 times in history for the 100 meter butterfly. Her prelims time knocked Dana Vollmer’s 55.98 from the 2012 Olympic Games in London down to the number 10 position, but her semi-final performance erased Vollmer from the all-time top-10 list altogether.

1 Sarah Sjöström 55.48 Rio 8/6/2016 (final)
2 Sarah Sjöström 55.64 Kazan 8/2/2015 (final)
3 Sarah Sjöström 55.68 Stockholm 3/29/2016
4 Sarah Sjöström 55.74 Kazan 8/1/2015 (semi-final)
5 Sarah Sjöström 55.76 Canet 6/16/2017
6 Sarah Sjöström 55.77 Budapest 7/23/17 (semi-final)
7 Sarah Sjöström 55.84 Rio 8/5/2016 (semi-final)
8 Sarah Sjöström 55.89 London 5/19/2016 (final)
9 Sarah Sjöström 55.95 Norrkoping 7/6/2016 (final)
10 Sarah Sjöström 55.96 Budapest 7/23/2017 (heats)
11 Dana Vollmer 55.98 London 7/12/2012 (final)

The world record holder in the 50 and 100 fly, Sjöström has been on another plane in these events; no one is even close. In the 100, she is the only woman besides Vollmer ever to have broken 56 seconds, and now she has done it ten times. The next-fastest qualifier for the final in Budapest, Australia’s Emma McKeon, is a half-second behind with 56.23. And the third qualifier, Kelsi Worrell, is a full second back with 56.74.

What remains to be seen is how fast Sjöström can go in the final. She didn’t need anyone to push her in Rio, when she won by a body length with a world record time of 55.48 ahead of Penny Oleksiak (56.46) and Vollmer (56.63).

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Swimmer
6 years ago

SS, Ledecky, Peaty, Katinka…
a lot of dominance

About Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant is the mother of four daughters, all of whom swam in college. With an undergraduate degree from Princeton (where she was an all-Ivy tennis player) and an MBA from INSEAD, she worked for many years in the financial industry, both in France and the U.S. Anne is currently …

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