Sarah Sjostrom announced today that she will not be competing in 2025, but she is still considering a 6th Olympic Games.
In an interview with Swedish newspaper Dagen Nyheter (DN), Sjostrom confirmed her plans through this year, saying “I have no competitions planned. I will train, but at a low load and then slowly increase. I think that is the best way to last in the long run.”
The 30-year-old Sjostrom is coming off an exceptional 2024 Olympic Games where she won gold in both the 50 and the 100 freestyles, her first Olympic gold in either event. She shared in her interview that this success has led to people encouraging her to consider retirement saying “You should stop now when you’re on top”.
Sjostrom confessed it would have been the easiest thing to stop now, but she is “still curious” about what she can do.
By taking 2025 off, Sjostrom will miss her first long course World Championships since 2009 when she was just 15-years-old. She is currently the six-time champion in the 50 butterfly, and the 3-time champion in the 50 freestyle. She will not defend either title at this year’s Worlds in Singapore.
She has not ruled out a sixth-straight Olympic Games, telling the newspaper it would be “awesome” to just qualify, but saying it would be “even more awesome if I can be close to the times I swam in Paris.”
Sjostrom will be 34 when the LA Olympics commence, but we’ve seen older 50 freestylers take the gold. Anthony Ervin was 35 when he won the gold medal in the 50 free at the 2016 Olympic Games, becoming the oldest Olympic swimming champion ever.
She has been a cornerstone of European swimming, breaking 9 World Records since 2009. Her very first record came at just 15-years-old when she went 56.44 in the 100 butterfly at the 2009 World Championships. Her most recent record was at the 2023 Worlds in Fukuoka where she swam 23.61 in the 50 freestyle. She is the current record holder in the 50 free, 100 free, and 50 butterfly events.
Sarah will be about 2 weeks shy of her 35 birthday when the 50 free takes place in LA (by World Aquatics age criteria, she will be considered 35).
Still the favorite for 50m gold in Los Angeles. Who knows what will happen in the 100m but she has a great chance there too.
100 no, let’s be honest
She will go down in history as one of the greatest female swimmers of all time. She is doing exactly what an older swimmer needs to do at this stage of the Olympic quad. She just needs to giver herself enough time to get fit and then race ready when before LA. Emma McKeown and Cate Campbell (and Caleb Dressel) ran their run too late this year, as we have seen many older swimmers do. Sarah is so talented, I think she can win the 50m in LA, the 100m will be tough.
“Sjostrom will miss her first long course World Championships since 2009.”
Should actually say miss her first since 2007 since she competed at and was world champion in 2009.
Gretchen Walsh dominance at Worlds 2025 now even amore assured!
Lol
You forgot Torri Huske…
Didn’t realize there were only two good female swimmers out there oh and they of course are from USA. Try again
Sarah was born on 17 August 1993, so recently she is 31 yeas old.
The winning time and World Record Sarah established at the World Aquatic Champs 2009 in Rome was 56.06. It took Sarah 6 (SIX) years to improve that suit-assisted swim. She made it at the Sette Colli Trophy 2015 (in Rome again!). The time was 56.04 – that time European Record.
One of the few swimmers that actually deserves taking extended time off
Sarah performed at a high level for a very long time going to multiple World champs SC+LC, World Cups, ISL… So she deserved a break after 16 years at the highest level.
But can someone explain to me how are tennis players for example able to play 4 grand slams a year plus multiple ATP/ WTA 500 and 1000 tournaments and keep coming back each year with the same hunger, while elite swimmers can’t handle more than one big meet a year ?
I mean a 37 year old Novak Djokovic ended his last season 2 months ago at the Shanghai Masters and he is already entered at the Brisbane International next week in preparation for the Australian Open next… Read more »
Would swimmers take breaks if they were receiving tennis player money? Also doping
lol true, a tennis player who lost their first round at Wimbledon this year earned $76k just for that. At LC Worlds, a swimmer gets $20k for a gold and $15k for silver, so if Summer repeats her Olympics performance at Worlds, she gets a little bit less than a Wimbledon player who doesn’t win a single match
My guess would be that everything about tennis, including the training, tournaments, matches etc. are vastly more entertaining for the athlete than anything about swimming; also, and maybe more importantly, tennis, like most other “game-like” sports has many different competitions every year, and preparation is very different from the kind of preparation swimming requires, so players can perform in top shape in every one of those competitions more or less.
The way the preparation/payoff interaction is balanced in swimming is probably the most mentally draining of all the sports, and I think a large part of the reason for that is that swimming happens in a medium the body is not normally used to: water.
I don’t think tennis players have to taper to perform at their peak the way swimmers do.
The how and why the requirements are so different is an interesting question. But this isn’t asked in good faith.
It’s the difference in the need to taper. Swimming is essentially purely athletic performance whereas Tennis is a game. If you look a major seasonal sports which are games, players play through injury, yet the best players still perform well because the game aspect is a huge part of it. This would not work in swimming or track, an injury that slows you is just game over, you can’t compete. Djokovic doesn’t need to be at tapered to run his best 100m to perform in a tournament. He just needs to be healthy and dialed in to his game.