In front of packed stands in both the trials and the final at Eriksdalsbadet in Stockholm, the 32-year-old superstar made a comeback.
It had been 607 days since her last competition - also at Eriksdalsbadet - days after her success in Paris, where she won Olympic gold in both the 50- and 100-meter freestyle.
Seven months ago, she also became a mother to her son Adrian.
Sjöström was fastest in the trials with 24.62 seconds - in the final she cut that time to 24.36.
“It's incredible”
It was enough for second place, as Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, a multiple Olympic and World Championship medalist, was two hundredths faster and recorded the fastest time this year over the distance.
"It's unbelievable, I gave birth 2.5 kilometers away seven months ago," Sjöström says, whose time is 0.75 seconds slower than her own world record of 23.61 from the 2023 World Championships.
"I'm really happy that I was able to maintain that level," Sjöström says, who has one Olympic gold medal and four World Championship gold medals in the 50-meter freestyle as her main achievements.
Sarah Sjöström is making a comeback with the aim of making her sixth Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Despite the long break and childbirth, she immediately showed that there could be successful years ahead.
“No stress”
She is aiming to swim at the European Championships in August in Paris, and then plans also to swim the 50-meter butterfly, where her dominance has been even greater than in the freestyle.
"I just think I'll have one more competition before the European Championships and then I'll swim butterfly. But I don't feel any stress. I started competing earlier than I thought, so that's just a good start," says Sjöström, who started training seriously in January this year.
Initially, she didn't think she would be ready to swim in the Swim Open.
Her results on Saturday in front of an enthusiastic home crowd in Stockholm showed otherwise.
But life is also different with a small baby. After the trials, she talked about the preparation for her first race:
"It's a little different than before with a baby. I played a little, rested, had a coffee. I woke up at 5 a.m., which you might not have done otherwise before a competition," she said with a laugh.
However, little Adrian did not get to experience his mother's return to the top of the world.
"My baby was with his grandfather, but everyone else in the family was here," she says.
