Sarah Sjostrom Needed Oxygen Mask After 200 Free Bronze, Is OK Now

2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Sarah Sjostrom posted a photo on Instagram today showing medical staff attending to her after the 200 freestyle final. In the picture, Sjostrom is lying next to a stretcher and receiving what appears to be oxygen through an oxygen mask.

“Feels after 200m freestyle! Right!?,” Sjostrom writes. “😳😂 FYI I’m fine now… And super happy with my bronze 😍”

The Swedish star is a 7-time world champ as well as an Olympic champ. She’s already won a silver and a bronze this week in Gwangju – the former in the 100 fly and the latter in tonight’s 200 free. At age 25, Sjostrom has spent several years suggesting she’s done with the 200 free, a tough event to add to an already-crowded event lineup. This spring, Sjostrom indicated she probably wouldn’t swim the 200 free at Worlds this summer:

“I am not 15 anymore so it’s a little difficult for me to do too many events,” Sjostrom said at the time.

Somewhere along the line, though, her decision changed. Sjostrom went 1:54.78 tonight for World Champs bronze. The 200 was a veteran-heavy event, with 30-year-old Federica Pellegrini – who has also publicly retired from the event only to return – winning gold and the 25-year-old Sjostrom bronze.

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Justhereforfun
4 years ago

I guess you could say……..watching Pellegrini win 8 world champ medals in a row was too breath-taking for Sjostrom

DoubleSwimMom
4 years ago

Sarah to me is one of the nicest and greatest currently competing athletes. Showed so much professionalism and respect in her defeat in the 100fly. Still carried a huge smile on her face and congratulated the winner. I was really turned off by how Katie Ledecky handled herself after the 400free. Even if she was sick and not feeling well her body language on the podium was below par.

Wow
Reply to  DoubleSwimMom
4 years ago

Oh give it a break lady – people still haven’t dropped this? Titmus was congratulated and they shared laughs.

Porter
Reply to  Wow
4 years ago

Yeah, people reading body language of sick people now, so funny. Lot of witnesses to Ledecky’s graciousness. Titmus should be grateful that an ill Ledecky refrained from breathing all over her–knowing Ledecky she was probably just being kind that way.

Urfff
Reply to  Porter
4 years ago

Podium Body Language Police!! The PBLP. Call the PBLP on any insufficient genuflection in congratulating an opponent. What’s next, Podium Thought Police?

m d e
Reply to  Urfff
4 years ago

We already have thePodium thought police. Its called FINA

Texas Tap Water
4 years ago

The older you get, the longer recovery time.

There was a reason why Phelps didn’t do 8 events program in London and Rio like what he did in Melbourne and Beijing.

In addition to her individual events, Sjostrom also has to swim all preliminary and final relays. That’s a lot of high intensity swimming.

Ol' Longhorn
Reply to  Texas Tap Water
4 years ago

30 ain’t so old. Several studies (some cited here — https://www.theactivetimes.com/why-middle-age-isn-t-past-your-prime) indicate that the endurance peak is later than we thought. 30 year old Lebron and Serena had zero recovery issues despite 45 min – 2 hour HIT workouts during the NBA season on a night after night basis or a tennis tournament. Phelps didn’t to 8 events in London and Rio because he didn’t train enough, and it wasn’t because of recovery issues. He just lost motivation, had depression, and was drinking heavily. I think the 30-31 yo athlete isn’t as compromised in recovery as most think.

Man of Steel
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
4 years ago

Swimming is much more anaerobic than most endurance sports. It could be that the after effects of the high levels of lactate produced by the 50-200m events is slower to recover from than from mostly aerobic events like cycling, running, tennis or even basketball.

brian
4 years ago

if sjostrom had made as pellegrini only the 200 styles probably would have won or almost. the difference between the first result and the third is so low that if she had been rested as pellegrini she could have done as she or even better. this also applies to titmus

Gertz
Reply to  brian
4 years ago

The difference between Pellegrini and Sjostrom (and the rest of the field) is that Pellegrini lived for many, many years with Filippo Magnini, suspended drug cheat who was involved in trafficking of PEDs.

Cayley
4 years ago

Congratulations to all!

Yozhik
Reply to  Cayley
4 years ago

Congratulations to all who haven’t skipped it.
But honestly, the only efforts that deserved admiration were Pellegrini’s 1:54.22 and Haughey Siobhan swimming under 1:55.
Only such a great swimmers like Schmitt, Ledecky and Sjostrom swam faster than Federica and they did it only once in their careers.
When Rikako Ikee broke 1:55 barrier last year it was a big news. The Siobhan’s achievement is not lesser.

Texas Tap Water
Reply to  Yozhik
4 years ago

Yozhik is back!

Haughey was fantastic and so was Queen Pellegrini. But what did you think of Titmus?

Do you still believe Stanford ruined Ledecky?

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Texas Tap Water
4 years ago

shiiiiiiiiiit , he is gonna spice up things after the half mark of these insane Champs….

Yozhik
Reply to  Texas Tap Water
4 years ago

I have mixed feelings toward Titmus. That is a talent that loves credits to be paid upfront. Having under belt more than one under 1:54.5 results is getting to be a prerequisite to be called a 200FR ace. By now only Ledecky, Sjostrom, Schmitt and Pellegrini deserve this title.

Ol' Longhorn
Reply to  Yozhik
4 years ago

Your girlfriend Hosszu looked pretty good in that 200 IM for a washed up, money grubbing, Iron Lady scam artist.

Yozhik
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
4 years ago

The anticipation of the World record after being 1 sec away from it in prelim race has not materialized. Moreover the backward movement was detected as the meet progresses. Let’s wait for the 400IM to see if she is one race per meet swimmer.
Is it the kind of entertainment you are expecting from me?

Tm71
4 years ago

I think her coach will tell her no 200 in the next years Olympics

Renner
4 years ago

Does anyone know if Sjostrom has been stripped of her TUE for her beta-agoniste inhaler? Results in this meet would seem to indicate that, or maybe she has to be careful with number of puffs given the multiple swims?

anonymous
Reply to  Renner
4 years ago

no one in the general public would know this private medical information so I think your question is just to provoke and to passively accuse her of questionable activity

Vorder
Reply to  anonymous
4 years ago

Actually it seems a perfectly reasonable question with no insinuation of questionable activity. The information regarding her legal TUE did enter the public domain at one point, just as did information regarding perfectly legal TUEs of many Olympic athletes of many nations. The question seems to be whether Sjostrom had to limit the use of the inhaler, or had her TUE revoked, given that she just nearly passed out on the deck of a public and televised swim meet which has never happened with her before.

SwimJon
Reply to  Vorder
4 years ago

Same thing happend eight years ago in Shanghai. And she has been close in other races too.

anonymous
Reply to  Vorder
4 years ago

I forgot about the hack of the Olympic athletes private/confidential information. However no one should know their current medical status. I do know that under a TUE the level of the medicine in the inhaler is limited to the recommended daily dosing of the medical use of the inhaler. The daily use of the inhaler is not related to how many events. Since I know that I thought there was the insinuation that she was doing something wrong with the inhaler if she uses one. When I originally saw the video of the race and Sarah afterwards and I went back and reviewed that video, I noticed that the mask was there but it was not hooked up to the… Read more »

Taa
Reply to  anonymous
4 years ago

I watched the WUGs swimming and they showed a couple swimmers taking hits off their inhalers behind the blocks.

Taa
Reply to  anonymous
4 years ago

I believe all TUEs should be public information and the use of TUE’s among swimmers should be compared to the use of these same drugs by the general public Its fair for swim fans to draw their own conclusions based off this.

Admin
Reply to  Taa
4 years ago

I’ve had elite swimmers tell me that they’re being told that there is good reason for elite swimmers to take some medicines at a higher level. For example, they’ve been told by the “official doctors of these things” (super unofficial term) that the high level of aerobic training in the harsh atmosphere of the pool is likely to exacerbate any underlying predisposition for asthma. They’ve also been told by the team scientists that there’s some connection between the effects of certain ADHD medicines and the ability to train harder – that it turns off some trigger in the brain that tells them “ok you’re done for this set, you’re done for the day.” In other words – in some cases,… Read more »

Conrad
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

If you are looking for someone to ask, why not ask Jenny Thompson about it? She is a physician-anesthesiologist and she said that in her day, 75% of the swimmers lining up in her finals were non-asthmatics improperly using inhalers. Bet that number hasn’t changed much. Problem with inhalers is that the chemicals eventually enhance musculature in a PED sort of way.

Admin
Reply to  Conrad
4 years ago

Interesting idea – thanks!

Taa
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

I think these official doctors likely have a conflict of interest and are promoting legal doping. So there would need to be some actual empirical data on this. They are just trying to justify the TUEs.

My point is that since this is such a slippery slope to go down that everything should be done in the open and not behind closed doors.

Emanuele
4 years ago

I just love Sarah. That post is fantastic

Texas Tap Water
Reply to  Emanuele
4 years ago

Why did you get downvoted so heavily?

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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