Louise Hansson Swims 57.3 in 100 Fly Prelims at Canadian Trials

by Steven Meyers 14

April 05th, 2019 Europe, International, News

2019 CANADIAN SWIMMING TRIALS

Sweden’s Louise Hansson threw down a personal best time of 57.35 in the women’s 100m fly at Canada Trials, qualifying first overall for finals (although she’ll swim in the consolation final because she’s a foreign swimmer).

Hansson has been on fire in Toronto, putting forward a 55.17 100m freestyle in prelims and a 1:00.35 100m backstroke to win the consolation final. With three solid 100m swims, Hansson is almost guaranteed to have a huge impact on the Swedish relays at the World Championships this summer. With 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle world record holder Sarah Sjostrom on the relays as well, it does beg the question of who would swim what leg of the medley relay.

It makes the most sense to put Hansson on the backstroke leg after her 1:00.35. She was just shy of Sjostrom’s Swedish national record of 59.98 that she set in Eindhoven in 2015. When it comes to the 100m fly, she’s just under two-seconds shy of Sjostrom’s record. In the 100m freestlye she’s even further back, shy of the record by approximately three-and-a-half seconds. With top Swedish swimmers like Michelle Coleman in the 100m freestyle, it makes the most sense that Hansson would swim backstroke. Jennie Johansson would swim the breaststroke as usual with a PB of 1:06.30.

Their flat start time added up puts together an extremely strong relay for the World Championships, almost matching what they went to finish fifth at the World Championships in 2017.

If you take Johansson, Sjostrom, and Coleman’s relay times from the 2o17 Championships along with Hansson’s backstroke time, they would have finished with a time of 3:53.93, which would have ranked them third behind the United States and Russia, but ahead of Australia in 2017.

2017 Splits 2017 Splits With Hansson’s 100 back
Ida Lindborg 1:01.56 Louise Hansson 1:00.35
Jennie Johansson 1:05.76 (2:07.32) Jennie Johansson 1:05.76 (2:06.11)
Sarah Sjostrom 55.03 (3:02.35) Sarah Sjostrom 55.03 (3:01.14)
Michelle Coleman 52.93 (3:55.28) Michelle Coleman 52.93 (3:54.07)

Note that breaststroker Jennie Johansson announced her retirement a year ago, so Sweden will also be looking for a replacement on that leg. Louise’s younger sister Sophie, who is a freshman at NC State and is not competing at this meet, is the likely challenger for that throne. Her best is a 1:07.5, but she made huge strides during this NCAA season as well.

Hansson’s rise to prowess in backstroke makes Sweden an absolute medal threat in the medley relay. Prior to competing at Canadian Trials Hansson had a very strong NCAA season with USC, breaking Kelsi Dahlia’s 100 yard butterfly NCAA record of 49.43 with a 49.34 in the prelims at Pac12s and lowering it further to a 49.26 in the NCAA final. She also won the 200 yard fly at NCAAs in 1:50.28.

 

 

 

 

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straya555
4 years ago

Does anyone know if she made the cut for Worlds in the 100 Back??

straya555
Reply to  straya555
4 years ago

She did the cut was 1:00.59

Steve
4 years ago

I feel like the medley relay for Sweden will either: Coleman, S.Hansson, L.Hansson, Sjostrom or L.Hansson, S.Hansson, Sjostrom, Coleman!
Both could be strong and I personally think it depends on the difference between Hansson and Sjostroms fly but also Coleman and Sjostroms free! Could definitely see them medaling at worlds, and who knows maybe even Tokyo

Swedishswimfan
4 years ago

Love to see what swimming in NCAA has done for Louise. She is 23 and drops .7 seconds in 100 m. Awsome.

Hoping more swimmers around the world give it a go

samulih
4 years ago

backstroke has been the weak link in w im relay, not anymore maybe…..

Aquajosh
4 years ago

What they really need for a relay medal is a 4th freestyler. With Hansson, Coleman, Sjostrom, they have formidable 400/800 freestyle relays as long as they can get a #4 to go sub 55/sub 2:00.

Marley09
4 years ago

Sweden has the same problem everyone else has. With USA and Russia each having 1,04 breaststrokers they begin 2 seconds behind.

Dee
4 years ago

Pretty sure Jennie retired quite some time ago. Sophie Hansson will swim breast.

Hswimmer
Reply to  Dee
4 years ago

It’s in the article

Dee
Reply to  Hswimmer
4 years ago

Yep, I believe it was added after the article was published.

SwimJon
4 years ago

Jennie Johansson has quit… still the medley looks good with Sophie Hansson in there. And come worlds Coleman might do the back