Sophie Hansson Breaks Her Own 50 Breast Record, Another Sjostrom Record Falls

2021 Swedish Short Course Championships

• November 24, 2021 – November 28, 2021
• Stockholm, Sweden
• SCM (25 meters)
• Results

After breaking the SCM 100 breaststroke Swedish record in the first half of Swedish Short Course Championships, Sophie Hansson lowered her own SCM 50 breast national record in the second half.

Hansson won the event in 29.68, breaking the record she set in 2017 at 29.77. She was the only woman to go under 30 seconds, with Emelie Fast coming in second at 30.04. After this meet, Hansson will only have one SCM breaststroke record that doesn’t belong to her: the 200 breast, the record of which was set in 2009 by Joline Höstman in 2:19.28.

On the junior side, Emmy Hällkvist, who broke Sarah Sjöström’s 100 fly record for 13-year-olds earlier in the meet, broke another one of Sjostrom’s records, this time in the 100 free.

Hällkvist finished tenth in the event among all competitors in a time of 56.61, the new Swedish record for 13-year-olds. Sjostrom’s old record, set in 2006, was 57.20. Hällkvist’s record-breaking 100 fly earlier in the meet was 1:00.80, almost an entire second faster than Sjostrom’s previous record. 

Comparatively, after she broke these records, Sjostrom would go on to compete and win at the 2008 European Championships, when she was just 14.

At the 2021 Swedish Championships, Thilda Häll also broke the Swedish record for 16-year-olds in the SCM 1500 freestyle with a time of 16:40.66. Häll broke Alba Forés’ record from 2014, which was 16:41.83. Häll’s time won her second place in the junior meet, behind Lucie Hanquet’s time of 16:33.12.