At the World Championship in Doha in February, Kate Douglass, USA, set an American record with 23.91 and took silver on 50 meters freestyle.
Despite this, she was no match for Sjöström, who won with 23.69 and took her fourth World Championship gold – her third in a row – on the distance.
In a podcast with the American swimming site Swimswam weeks later, Douglass was hesitant to swim 50 meters freestyle at the American Olympic Games trials.
"No one beats her"
Partly because the 200 meters medley and 50 freestyle overlap each other in Paris, partly because of Sarah Sjöström.
First, I want to beat Sarah Sjöström, and then we can start talking about it (choosing 50 meters freestyle), but I don't think anyone beats her as long as she swims, said Douglass.
So it was. Douglass never entered the short freestyle distance at the Olympic Games trials. So far in Paris, she has won gold on 200 meters breaststroke and took silver with the American team on 4x100 meters freestyle.
The numbers that impress
Here are the numbers that scare Douglass and the other competitors:
23.61: Sjöström's world record time from the World Championship in Japanese Fukuoka last year. It was super-Sarah's first world record notation in six years.
35: The number of times Sjöström has swum under 24 seconds on the distance. An incredibly impressive number, especially since the second on that list, Cate Campbell, Australia, has only done it nine times. She didn't even qualify for the distance at the Olympic Games.
8: The number of times Sjöström has swum under 24 seconds just this year, with the World Championship gold time 23.69 as the best.
3: The number of other swimmers in the Olympic starting field who have been under 24 seconds. The trio Shayna Jack, Australia (23.99 this year), Katarzyna Wasick, Poland (23.95 at the World Championship this year), and Simone Manuel, USA (23.95 at the World Championship 2017), have done it only once each in their careers, according to the International Swimming Federation's statistics.
I'm very proud to have such a high level of performance, says Sjöström, who also describes it as a security:
Absolutely, now I always aim higher than my level of performance, but I know it's there and I know what I need to do to reach a certain level.
The trials and semifinal on 50 meters freestyle will take place on Saturday and the final on Sunday.
