– I feel that I am starting to find the feeling in the water more and more. What is needed now is to get away, and find a good flow in training.
On August 26 this year, 32-year-old Sarah Sjöström became a mother for the first time after a dramatic birth when her son Adrian was born in the ambulance outside BB.
Although much is still new, she and her husband Johan de Jong Skierus have started to find an everyday life that works for them. When DN talks to Sarah, paternity leave Johan has gone for a pram walk with Adrian.
The Christmas and New Year holidays are coming up soon and the family is getting ready to go to Stellenbosch in South Africa. Apart from a nice day off in the sun, the trip there is also something of a starting point for Sjöström’s way back as an elite athlete.
Admittedly, she has already started training, but so far mostly because she enjoys moving and to find her way back to routines.
– The body has probably not recovered one hundred percent yet, but I feel good from training, says Sarah Sjöström.
– With Johan being at home now, I also feel that I can train without stress because I know that Adrian is doing well with him.
A routine that already has started to settle is that she does strength training three times a week.
– I have talked a lot with “Toni” (coach Antonio Lutula) that the focus should only be quality, so there is a lot of technique training, says Sjöström.
– When I was doing strength training before the Olympics in Paris, on the other hand, there was a lot of focus on “now I’m going to get stronger”, and then preferably even a little stronger. That meant that you didn’t have time to go back and work on the technical aspects. So now I drive slowly and technically with torso control. It feels really good, and it’s something that I think will make me even stronger.
– But for that it is required that I really have patience and slowly step up.
She has also swam some, but so far mostly alone. Now she is getting ready for the next step.
– I can lie down and swim 3,000-4,000 meters without problems. It’s like nothing strange, says Sjöström.
– Then it is clear that there are still some technical things that I have to find my way back to, and to do that I need a coach on the edge of the pool. Otherwise, it’s easy to lie there and swim and think that this is great. On the other hand, if you have a coach, he can point out, for example, that I have to angle my hand in a different way.
In Stellenbosch, she will have a coach on the sidelines, and thus the slow and methodical road back can begin.
The family Sjöström – de Jong Skierus will stay in South Africa for five weeks. During half that time, Sjöström’s coach Antonio Lutula will also be there.
– It will really help me get started with training, says Sarah Sjöström.
In addition, it will be an extra boost that the French butterfly swimmer Mélanie Henique, who has been training with Sjöström’s regular training group based at Eriksdalsbadet for some time now, will also be there during the two and a half weeks that Lutula is there.
– It will be absolutely perfect to have someone to train with, says Sarah Sjöström.
When it comes to strength training during the weeks in Stellenbosch, she had hoped to be joined by some of the Swedish track and field athletes, who often camp there during this period of the year.
– Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be the case this time. However, I hope someone or a few will show up, because it’s always fun to have them in the gym, says Sjöström, who has been to South Africa on several occasions.
Similar to several others swimmer, in recent years Sarah Sjöström has also practiced pilates in parallel with swimming and strength training. Since Adrian was born, she has tested a new variant.
– During the autumn, I actually ran something called “baby barre”. It has been me and a few other new moms who have done it. You could say that they have been a bit like my parents’ group, says Sarah Sjöström and laughs.
– It has been fun, cozy and very cute with a lot of babies lying on the floor wondering where their mothers are up to.
– Since then, there has not been a direct focus on finding the Olympic form, but it is more the social aspect that is at the center.
After returning home from South Africa it will only be a short time in Sweden before Sarah Sjöström travels on.
– Then I go to a training camp in Tenerife with the national team, which suits me perfectly. When you’re at camp, it’s easier to actually get the training done, which in turn also makes it easier to stick to it at home, too.
The hope is that the road back will continue without problems with a slow increase in load that the body can handle. If Sjöström succeeds in this, the idea is that she will return to the golden city of Paris in August next year.
It was there in the summer of 2024, she swam home two Olympic golds, and a championship comeback in the same city when the long-course EC is decided between August 10-16 is included in the plan.
– But first I have to qualify there, says a smiling Sjöström who has previously not had to think about qualifying times.
This means that there will be one or a couple of competitions before the European Championships, but when it can be remains to be seen.
– I have to talk to “Toni” and Martina (confederation captain Aronsson) about what the rules for qualifying times look like. If I had to choose, I would probably like to wait a while with the first competition, but as I said, it depends on what applies to the qualifying times. My dream scenario is to wait until the summer at some point, but if I have to compete before that to qualify, I have to do it.
Even if the planning going forward is getting more and more solid forms, it is continued with great calmness that Sarah Sjöström takes on 2026. If the body does not feel okay as it approaches the European Championships, there will be other competitions.
We have already established that there is a good chance that she will come back as an even stronger Sarah. The question is whether she will also return as an even faster Sarah.
– I haven’t even experienced any real speed training yet, so it’s far, far too early to talk about, says Sarah Sjöström and laughs again.
Considering that she holds the world record in both the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly, and has set nine of the ten fastest races in history in both the 50 freestyle and 50 butterfly, is perhaps a bit too optimistic to believe.
But Sarah Sjöström has often done things that no one else has succeeded in doing. So only time can give a definitive answer to that.
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