Sarah Fredrika Sjöström (born 17 August 1993 in Salem

Salem Municipality

Salem Municipality is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. The name traces its origins from Slaem in the 16th century, but was later changed to Salem, the Biblical name of Jerusalem...

, Stockholm County

Stockholm County

Stockholm County is a county or län on the Baltic sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockholm is the capital of Sweden. Stockholm County is divided by the historic provinces of Uppland and Södermanland...

) is a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 swimmer

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

. On 22 March 2008, at the age of 14, she took the gold medal in women's 100 m butterfly

Butterfly stroke

The butterfly is a swimming stroke swum on the breast, with both arms moving simultaneously. The butterfly kick was developed separately, and is also known as the "dolphin kick"...

 at the 2008 European Aquatics Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. She was clocked for 58.44 seconds. In the semi-finals the day before, she set a new national record with 58.38 seconds, breaking Anna-Karin Kammerling

Anna-Karin Kammerling

Anna-Karin Kammerling is a world-record breaking Swedish swimmer, who was born in Malmö, Sweden. Currently she resides in Sundsvall and trains with the Sundsvalls Swim Club under coach Hans Bergquist....

's old one (58.71 seconds). At the Swedish championships in 2008 she swam at 58.55.

On 26 July 2009 at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships

2009 World Aquatics Championships

The 2009 World Aquatics Championships or the XIII FINA World Championships were celebrated in Rome, Italy in 2009 from July 17 to August 2. The 2009 Championships featured competition in all 5 aquatics disciplines: diving, swimming, open water swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo.Rome won...

 Sarah Sjöström set a world record in the semifinals with a time of 56.44, surpassing Inge de Bruijn

Inge de Bruijn

Inge de Bruijn is a Dutch former swimmer. She was a four-time Olympic champion and a former world record holder.-Biography:De Bruijn was born in Barendrecht, South Holland, and tried several sports before settling with swimming....

's nine year old record. On the next day, in the finals for the women's 100 m butterfly, she won the gold medal and improved her world record time to 56.06.

At the 2010 European Aquatics Championships in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, she defended her 2008 gold medal by winning the women's 100 m butterfly stroke. (The European Aquatics Championships is a biennial event and hence did not take place in 2009.)

Long course (50 m)

Short course (25 m)

Accomplishments

Sjöström won the gold medal in 100 metre butterfly in the World Championship in Rome 2009 and set the world record. She also participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

 and finished 27th in the 100 metre butterfly

Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre butterfly

-Heats:Q = Qualified to Semifinal AS = Asian RecordAF = African Record...

 and 29th in the 100 metre backstroke

Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre backstroke

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.During the two preliminary heats, Kirsty Coventry broke first the existing Olympic Record, then the existing World Record. Thus, prior to the final heat, both records were different than what they had been before the...

. She also participated in Sweden

Sweden at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Sweden competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. This is a list of all of the Swedish athletes who have qualified for the Olympics.-Medalists:- Archery:Men-Men's team:-Women's team:- Badminton :...

's 4×100 metre medley relay team. They managed to reach the final, but in the final they were disqualified for an over-long false start.