Swedish sprint phenom Sarah SjΓΆstrΓΆm, one of the most decorated female swimmers in history, announced the birth of her first child, Adrian, with her partner Johan de Jong Skierus. The new parents celebrated the arrival of their son on Instagram today, sharing a photo of their newborn baby boy.
Her announcement via Instagram:
SjΓΆstrΓΆm shared that Adrianβs arrival was anything but ordinary. After more than 24 hours of managing contractions at home, she was sent away from the hospital, still in early labor. Her labor progressed rapidly, leading to an βendlessβ ambulance ride through Stockholm. With the hospital already full, she was rerouted to SΓΆdersjukhuset, where Adrian was born at 8:05 p.m. on August 26th, in the back of the ambulance in the hospital driveway.
Despite describing the experience as both βtraumatic and magical,β SjΓΆstrΓΆm said the moment her son was placed on her chest and cried for the first time became the βmost magical moment of our lives.β
Sarah’s partner, Johan de Jong Skierus, previously competed as a Swedish fencer at the national level, where he acquired multiple medals before moving into anti-money laundering work at Danske Bank. The two are long-time sweethearts; they became engaged in the early months of 2022, and later married in Tuscany in the fall ofΒ 2024.
SjΓΆstrΓΆm revealed in February that she was pregnant with her first child, due in August. She was candid at the time about her experience of the first trimester, describing it as βsome of the most mentally and physically challengingβ she had experienced. But she still found time to get in the pool on her good days, even if βeverything is much slower now in the water.ββ
One of the hallmarks of that announcement back in February was her expressed desire to keep going and compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, her sixth Olympics overall. She said at the time that the reason she will likely be back in the pool, ready to train again after pregnancy, isnβt purely for medals or records. βItβs about discovering what my body is capable of after recovering from pregnancy.β
SjΓΆstrΓΆm, 32, is one of the greatest female swimmers of all time. A six-time Olympic medalist, she owns 36 World Championship medals, 20 of them gold, and is the current LCM world record holder in the 50 and 100 freestyle and 50 butterfly.
The Swedish star embarks on her latest life journey away from competitive swimming, yet maintains her desire to compete at a sixth Olympic Games.
Congratulations to you both!
And thank you Sarah for keeping it so real. (That pain is indescribable and it makes me feel better that even the best female sprinter ever also felt the same as me ππ).
βThe new parents celebrated the arrival of their daughter on Instagram today, sharing a photo of their newborn baby boy.β
???
It’s 2025 bro you gotta at cover all the bases
So cute!
Congrats to all 3 of them – especially getting through such an extreme experience
Wishing a speedy recovery
PS: the 200m fly might get new perspectives since the famous quote
(“I don’t always swim 200m fly, but when I do I die!”)
π
Oof, it hurts to read that Sjostrom had such a difficult experience. Kudos to her for being so open and raw about it. Her post brings back a lot of memories – and I’m sure it will for lots of others too. Wonderful as they can be, pregnancy, labor, and birth are no joke. Best wishes to her as she recovers.
Glad mother and baby are well, but “The one we were supposed to go to was full.”? Odd that a hospital would turn away a woman deep in labor.
Since she was at home and had travel time anyway, if the hospital that turned her away knew that all their experienced doctors, nurses, and midwifes were engaged already and there was another facility with available highly experienced doctors, nurses, and midwifes that was within a similar distance (and possibly even closer) then it makes a lot of sense.
Congratulations to them both. I’m sorry to hear it was such a traumatic time for them (I used to be a midwife) and I hope they recover soon, now they have their beautiful healthy son.