The 28-year-old Helsingborg swimmer – who in short track has three World Championship gold medals and ten medals – had had a lot of setbacks when she last year finally got the margins on her side and took her first individual World Championship medal in long track on 100 meters butterfly.
With four hundredths of a margin to fourth place.
If a medal is to be taken this year, a even sharper performance is likely to be needed.
Her personal record, from the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021, is 56.22. That time would have been enough for gold last year.
This year, probably at best to silver.
The reason for this is spelled Gretchen Walsh, the American star who crushed Sarah Sjöström's previous world record in the event. Sjöström had the record for eight years before Walsh beat it by three tenths last year.
"No one has been close"
This year, she has first improved her own record and then crushed it.
She became the first woman under 55 seconds when she swam at 54.60 – almost a second faster than Sjöström's previous record.
Inspiring to see or does one become despondent?
It's inspiring to see that, but it doesn't mean I think I can swim in 54 seconds just because she does it. She has crushed the world record and no one else has been close. It's more inspiring when many take the step, says Louise Hansson.
But she does not assume that the gold is given to the American, who in the winter beat the world record three times on the distance in short track.
She can also swim away. She was not as fast in Fukuoka (World Championship 2023), but a skilled swimmer, and swam away in the final, says Hansson, who since last summer has struck down the poles in Stockholm.
This after first having swum in college in Los Angeles and then in British Loughborough.
In the winter, she was three months in Australia and swam with three different training groups.
All to find inspiration and new ways.
"More difficult than swimming"
She has swum two consecutive Olympic finals on 100 meters butterfly – in eighth place in Paris – and plans to participate on "home ground" in Los Angeles 2028. It will be her fourth Olympic Games.
I think the trip to Australia gave a lot. I want to swim fast in the World Championship, but the main goal this year is to find out what I want to do and explore new training environments, she says.
With the upcoming mother Sarah Sjöström away, Louise Hansson will be one of those who fills the gap in the swimming national team.
When I was new in the national team, the worst thing I knew was to do interviews and stand in TV. It was more difficult than the races themselves. Now I have grown into it quite a bit. In the USA, I was team captain for two years and it was a lot of responsibility, she says.
Göran Sundberg/TT
Facts: Swedes with medal merits
TT
+ Louise Hansson. One of two Swedes in the team who has taken an individual World Championship medal in long track, the bronze on 100 meters butterfly in Doha 2024. European Champion on the distance 2022. 100 meters butterfly will be decided on Sunday (heats and semifinals) and Monday (final).
+ Erik Persson. World Championship silver 2022 and European Championship gold last year on 200 meters breaststroke. The event will be decided on July 31 and August 1.
+ Sophie Hansson. European Championship gold on 100 meters breaststroke 2021, but has, with one exception, had difficulty reaching her personal record in recent years. The event will be decided on July 28-29.
+ Sara Junevik. Took European Championship gold on 50 meters butterfly last year and is sixth in the world this year. The event will be decided on August 1-2.
