Sarah Sjostrom Sets World Record in 100M Butterfly at 2016 Rio Olympics
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom not only won a gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro—she set a world record in the process.
Sjostrom won the women’s 100-meter butterfly with a time of 55.48 seconds, which was good enough for the world mark, per Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times. Nicole Auerbach of USA Today noted Sjostrom broke her own record to capture the gold.
Canada’s Penny Oleksiak won the silver, while American Dana Vollmer took home the bronze.
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Sjostrom cleared the rest of the competition by nearly a full second, as the last-place finisher was closer to Oleksiak than the Canadian was to winning the gold:
| 1 | Sarah Sjostrom (Sweden) | 55.48 |
| 2 | Penny Oleksiak (Canada) | 56.46 |
| 3 | Dana Vollmer (United States) | 56.63 |
| 4 | Xinyi Chen (China) | 56.72 |
| 5 | Ying Lu (China) | 56.76 |
| 6 | Rikako Ikee (Japan) | 56.86 |
| 7 | Emma McKeon (Australia) | 57.05 |
| 8 | Jeanette Ottesen (Denmark) | 57.17 |
It was business as usual for Sjostrom, who had already impressed during the semifinals in Rio. According to Auerbach, the Swedish swimmer set an Olympic record of 55.84 seconds during the semifinals and delivered a message to the rest of the field. Auerbach said Sjostrom looked "unbeatable" after that performance, which proved to be the case in the final.
Raphielle Johnson of NBC Sports' Olympic Talk noted Sjostrom's time of 55.64 seconds in 2015 was the previous world record. Johnson added that Sjostrom became the first female swimmer from Sweden to capture a gold medal at the Olympics.
The time differential between first place and the rest of the field was a clear marker of how dominant Sjostrom was Sunday, but Oleksiak was impressive as well in her silver-medal effort. The 16-year-old set a world junior record with her time, per Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports.
The United States did not go home empty-handed, either, thanks to Vollmer's performance. She won the bronze after helping spearhead her 4x100-meter freestyle relay team to a silver medal in Saturday's competition.
Vollmer won the gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly at the 2012 Olympics in London and just returned to the pool in May 2015 after giving birth to a son in March last year, per Rachel Lutz of NBC Olympics.
While Vollmer added to her medal collection and completed a formidable comeback Sunday, the race and world record belonged to Sjostrom.
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