Sarah Sjostrom Wins 50m Freestyle Gold at Paris Olympics, Completing Sprint Double

by Nicholas Edwards · 04/08/2024

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom captures gold in the women’s 50m freestyle at the Paris Olympics, adding to her 100m title. Australia’s Meg Harris takes silver, and China’s Zhang Yufei wins bronze.

Paris, Bollywood Fever: Sweden’s world record holder Sarah Sjostrom completed a freestyle sprint double by winning the women’s 50 meters gold at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, adding to her 100 meters title.

Australia’s Meg Harris, who previously secured a gold medal in the 4×100 free relay, took the silver as the only other woman to finish under 24 seconds. China’s Zhang Yufei won the bronze, marking her fifth medal of the Games and the ninth of her career.

Sarah Sjostrom Wins 50m Freestyle Gold at Paris Olympics, Completing Sprint Double

Sjostrom, 30, showcased her enduring prowess in her fifth Olympics, having smashed Hungarian Katinka Hosszu’s Olympic record in the semi-finals with a time of 23.66 seconds in her favorite event. Although she couldn’t match that time in Sunday’s “splash and dash” at the La Defense Arena, she still clinched gold with a time of 23.71 seconds, raising two fingers in triumph after touching the wall.

Harris finished 0.26 seconds behind Sjostrom, while Zhang was 0.49 seconds off the pace. Sjostrom, who won silver in the 50m at Tokyo three years ago, now boasts six individual Olympic medals from three Games: three golds, two silvers, and one bronze.

This achievement adds to her impressive collection of 23 individual medals and two relay medals at world championships. All three medallists have the potential to further add to their tallies in the later 4x100m medley relay.