After the European Championship gold medal in the 50-meter butterfly on Wednesday evening, the entire swimming world is impressed by the new version of super Swede Sarah Sjöström.
Mother and Sarah Sjöström.
She gave birth to her son Adrian just under a year ago, at the end of August last year.
In January, she started hard training again.
Eight months later, she has won her 18th European Championship gold medal - 18 years after her first.
“A little above expectations”
Sjöström's coach Antonio Lutula on what he saw in front of him in January:
I didn't think so much about medals and times, but about seeing where she is and building on each week. It's also something she's very good at herself. Not thinking about her past achievements but about the current situation and improving.
Has it gone quickly?
A little above expectations actually.
National team captain Martina Aronsson explains the rapid journey with Sarah Sjöström's love for the sport and the lifestyle that comes with it:
It's something that has followed her throughout her career, it hasn't always been straightforward, but I think her fantastic sense of travel, competition and enjoyment is the main thing. She enjoys the journey. She can compete with joy and not with her shoulders hunched.
Favorite in freestyle
Sjöström has 50 meters freestyle left at the European Championships in Paris, where she is also the gold favorite and Europe's number one. It starts on Friday with the final on Saturday evening.
On the world stage, where Sjöström has also dominated greatly, two Americans have taken over during the Swede's two-year championship hiatus.
Gretchen Walsh, 23, has been only eight hundredths of a second above Sjöström's world record in the 50-meter butterfly this year, and in the 50-meter freestyle Walsh has taken over the world record from the Swede. Kate Douglass, 24, has also been close to Sjöström's old world record time.
Both the national team captain and Antonio Lutula are convinced that Sjöström can compete with the Americans at the World Championships next year and the Olympics in two years in Los Angeles.
Sjöström will have time to build herself up further after giving birth and there is no "age anxiety" - she turns 33 next week -:
She is almost 33 years old, but in Rome (in June) she was two tenths off her personal best in freestyle swimming, so she is obviously still maintaining a high level, he says.
Facts: Other famous swimming moms
Dara Torres, USA: At the age of 41, she won three Olympic silver medals, including an individual 50-meter freestyle, in Beijing in 2008. This was after giving birth to her first child in 2006.
Dana Vollmer, USA: Won three Olympic medals in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 at the age of 28, including a gold in the team event (4x100 meter medley) and an individual bronze in the 100 meter butterfly (the event that Sarah Sjöström won), 16 months after giving birth to her first child.
Therese Alshammar, Sweden: One of Sweden's greatest swimming stars of all time. Made a comeback at age 36 in 2014 after giving birth to her first child. She made it to her sixth Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, where she was the Swedish flag bearer, but did not reach the same level as before childbirth due to injuries.
