Silver on Team Line: “Best Moment”

For Sara Sjöström an hour before she won the 50m butterfly, it was her 86th championship medal.

– It’s so much fun for girls to be on stage together. I am very proud, says Sjöström.

He led the Swede straight up with his opening distance of 53.12. Louise Hanson (54.21) and Sarah Junevik (55.12) led the way.

Junevic sent the new Austed, who won his second long-distance championship since his WC debut, finishing half a second ahead of Great Britain in the final.

“So nervous”

But British star Freya Anderson was 1.3 seconds faster, with Austed clocking 54.84.

– I don’t remember anything, I was very nervous. But this is what you have dreamed of all your life. Doing it with three other people is triple the fun, says Austedt.

Sweden finished last at 3.37.29 and 82 hundredths behind Great Britain.

The Netherlands were third, three tenths from the Swedes.

Swedish women often compete for medals in the team race, with four team race medals at the short WC, two of them gold in the medley and a world record in the 4×50.

First since 2016

But on the long track, it’s been a while since that was enough for a medal – and most notably, at the 2016 European Championships in London, where Sweden won bronze.

– Swimming on the freestyle team and coming away with a medal is always a lot of fun. It was a great team effort, we got cannon position from Sarah and it was just a matter of trying to stay in the lead until the next one,” says Louise Hanson.