Last week, the European swimming federation nailed down the dates for the European Championship 2026.
It will be decided on August 10-16 in Paris.
The city where Sarah Sjöström had a gold party last year with double Olympic gold.
She says that the child – who, if all goes well, is expected in seven weeks – will control her comeback.
But a championship comeback in the gold city is tempting.
It's a lot of fun. I'm already looking at making some trip to Champagne or what to do with the child afterwards, she says with a laugh.
Aiming for 2028
Sjöström had already made it clear before the pregnancy that her goal is to swim in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 2028. That has not changed for super-Sarah who turns 32 in August.
TT meets Sjöström at a café in Djurgårdsstaden in Stockholm. It's 27 degrees hot and she's dressed in a cool wine-red dress in the heat. She seems harmonious and says she's feeling well.
I'm mostly looking forward to meeting the baby. We don't know if it's a boy or girl, so it will be very exciting, she says about the baby luck together with her husband Johan de Jong Skierus.
And adds:
Then I'm looking forward to not being pregnant anymore.
Training "for life"
Because even if she's feeling well now, it hasn't been that way throughout the pregnancy. She was affected by hyperemesis, a condition with extreme pregnancy nausea.
Between week 7 and 18, I had it very tough, but for my part, it was nice that it passed. Many pregnant women have that throughout the pregnancy. So I'm grateful for that.
She has kept going all the time with swimming and strength training. But her own definition of it is not about what's to come.
I'm doing about half as much when it comes to volume, both in terms of sessions and meters, but the intensity is zero. For me, it's nice to be in the water, it's harder to go for a walk considering how hot it is and that you're heavy. Right now, nothing is about performance, but about training to feel good and for life.
"It's really disgusting"
The rest will come later.
Focus after pregnancy will be to find a strong, stable body again and a training load that makes me able to stay injury-free for many years to come. I will have other physical conditions when I've given birth and will probably never be at the same load again as before the Olympic Games in Paris, says Sjöström who misses the World Championship in Singapore at the end of July.
Have you had any cravings during pregnancy?
Piggelin and Caesar salad. Piggelin is probably quite common. Normally, I love chocolate and chips, but I don't dare right now, it's really disgusting, she says.
