Sarah Sjöström sprints to second gold medal in Paris Olympics with dominant win in 50-freestyle

NANTERRE, France (AP) — Sarah Sjöström of Sweden won the 50-meter freestyle Sunday night in her fifth Olympics, a perfect complement to the 100 free she won earlier in the Paris Olympics.

Sjöström touched in 23.71 seconds, just shy of the world record of 23.61 she set at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

She was 14 when she swam in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And there is no thought of retiring. So she may be back for Los Angeles in four years.

“I mean, how much better Games could you have,” Sjöström said. “It’s unbelievable. This was definitely my best Olympics. I never thought I would win the two golds on my fifth Olympics.”

In a race that’s usually decided by a hundredths of a second, the Swedish star turned this into a relative blowout. She was fastest off the block and clearly in control by the midway point of the single lap.

Meg Harris of Australia took the silver in 23.97, while the bronze went to China’s Zhang Yufei in 24.20. For Zhang, one of the swimmers implicated in a Chinese doping scandal, it was her fourth bronze of the games to go with a silver.

Gretchen Walsh of the United States just missed out on her fourth medal of the Games, touching fourth in 24.21.

Sjöström, who turns 31 later this month, debuted in the 2008 Beijing Olympics when she was only 14 and has been swimming’s dominant female sprinter for almost a decade. And she has not mentioned retiring and could be heading to Los Angeles for the 2028 Games.

“I’m definitely going to continue swimming for many years,” she said. “But I’m not thinking about retiring. But how much better could I do.”

She leaves Paris with two gold medals to go with a gold, two silver medals and a bronze picked up in the Games in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

The Swede is the world-record holder in the 50 free (23.61) and 100 free (51.71) and held the 100 fly record until American Gretchen Walsh broke it just under two months ago.