Sarah Sjostrom Breaks 100 Fly World Record En Route To 1st Olympic Gold

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• Swimming: August 6-13
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Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström made her first-ever Olympic medal a special one, breaking the 100 fly world record to pick up Olympic gold.

Sjöström went 55.48 to take down her own world record for the third time in just over a year. Sjöström first took the record from the 2012 Olympic champ, Dana Vollmer, last August, and reset it one day later at the FINA World Championships.

It had stood at 55.64 heading into Rio, and Sjöström went 55.48 to take a considerable chunk off the fastest time in history while blowing out the Olympic field by almost a full second.

Astoundingly, Sjöström has now broken 56 on seven separate occasions in her career. Vollmer is the only other swimmer ever to break 56 in history. Sjöström holds the 7 fastest swims in history in the 100 fly:

Top 10 In World 100 Fly History

1. Sjöström – 55.48 (2016 Olympic final)
2. Sjöström – 55.64 (2015 Worlds final)
3. Sjöström – 55.68 (2016 Stockholm Open)
4. Sjöström – 55.74 (2015 Worlds semifinal)
5. Sjöström – 55.84 (2016 Olympic semifinal)
6. Sjöström – 55.89 (2016 European Championships)
7. Sjöström – 55.95 (2016 Swedish Nationals)
8. Vollmer – 55.98 (2012 Olympics)
9. Sjöström – 56.04 (2015 Sette Colli Trophy)
10.  Sjöström – 56.06 (2009 Worlds)

Here’s a look at the splits between Sjöström’s old and new world records:

• 2015: 26.17/29.47 – 55.64
• 2016: 26.01/29.47  55.48

Interestingly enough, Sjöström came home in identical second 50 splits between the two races. It was her front-half speed that improved between Kazan and Rio – Sjöström was almost out in under 26 seconds, which is a crazy amount of speed for the opening lap of a 100-meter race.

Video of the race, courtesy of @NBCOlympics on Twitter:

Sarah Sjöström gets the Gold and a new World Record in the 100m Fly!https://t.co/BWGaUNiTHM https://t.co/AxGXIdpGcb

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 8, 2016