The swimming star's new life is immediately apparent before the Swedish team's press conference near the competition arena in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Sara, her husband Johan and baby Adrian, almost 1 year old, in a stroller, are walking back from a meal at the hotel.
When the press conference begins, Adrian is sleeping in his room.
Sarah Sjöström, of course, appreciates that the whole family is there, but so do her teammates.
It's a bit fun to have a baby with you, it gives a childish side to it too, which is needed. It shouldn't always be so serious, but a bit of "lazy fun" too. That's when I think the squad feels its best, says long-distance runner Victor Johansson.
“Very cute”
Sjöström on that reaction:
It's great that they appreciate it. I myself was one of the swimmers when we had Therese (Alshammar) and Ida Marko Varga and they had their babies with them for the Olympics in Rio. They ran around on the pool deck in diapers, it was so cute.
Sjöström started training hard again after giving birth in January this year, has swum two 50-meter freestyle competitions (Swim Open in April and Sette Colli in Rome in June) and one 50-meter butterfly (in Rome).
She is number one in Europe at both distances ahead of the European Championships.
I never thought that, I'm just grateful that my body and training are working, says Sjöström.
“Feels unreal”
At the competition in Rome, she was only 25 hundredths of a second above her personal best (the previous world record) in the 50-meter freestyle and just over six tenths above her world record in the 50-meter butterfly.
"I knew that if I was going to be in the European Championships, I wanted to be in such good shape that I could be in the final and compete for medals, and I really feel that. It feels unreal that I was able to get back to this level," says Sjöström about her quick return after becoming a mother.
It has been 18 years since Sarah Sjöström broke through with her smashing gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly at the 2008 European Championships.
She has won 96 international medals so far, including three Olympic gold medals – two of which came in Paris two years ago, 20 World Championship gold medals (in long and short course) and 29 European Championship gold medals.
For me, it's not about winning another medal, it's everything around me that I've missed, building the puzzle for competitions and finding ways to get faster, she says.
The European Championships in Paris could bring new gold and faster times for mother Sjöström.
The European Swimming Championships start on Monday and continue all week.
This is how Sarah Sjöström's distances are determined:
Tuesday: 50 meter butterfly, trials and semifinals.
Wednesday: 50 meter butterfly, final.
Friday: 50 meter freestyle, trials and semifinals.
Saturday: 50 meter freestyle, final.
