Sarah Sjostrom Calling All Challengers In The 100m Butterfly

Can anybody beat Swedish swimmer Sarah Sjostrom in the women 100 meter butterfly at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary?

Jul 23, 2017 by Maclin Simpson

Sarah Sjostrom Calling All Challengers In The 100m Butterfly

2017 FINA World Championships

July 23-30, 2017
Budapest, Hungary
Dagály Aquatics Arena
SCHEDULE
PSYCH SHEET
LIVE RESULTS

Sarah Sjöström (SWE)

WR: 100m Butterfly -- 55.48, Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) 2016
2017 Best: 55.76 (+0.28)

Sarah Sjöström has been absolutely on fire in 2017. Coming off three individual Olympic medals in Rio, including gold and a world record in the 100m butterfly, Sjöström has taken women's sprinting to another level by regularly challenging world records on any given event, any time of year.

Over the last three years, Sjöström has extended her dominance in the women's sprint butterfly events, winning the world title in the 100m fly in 2013 and 2015 and the 50m fly in 2015. Sjöström sits just 0.33 away from her world record in the 50m and 0.83 in front of world No. 2 Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands and 0.28 from her world record in the 100m fly and 1.13 in front of second-ranked Rikako Ikee of Japan. Talk about dominance.

Since she already holds the 100m butterfly world record, a personal-best time is enough for her to earn the FINA world-record bonus of $30,000 USD. That's not a bad day in the office.

But who can challenge her? As of Sunday morning at the 2017 FINA World Championships, it looks like Kelsi Worrell of the United States is the No. 1 contender. Worrell swam a lifetime best of 56.44 to claim the second seed going into Sunday night's semifinals. Sjöström is first with a 55.96.

Realistically, there is not anyone who will challenge Sjöström at this point in the quad -- she has been too good lately. Outside of Worrell, however -- Emma McKeon of Australia, Rikako Ikee of Japan, and Penny Oleksiak of Canada will be lurking.

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