"They are happy tears. I see my mom and dad in the stands and it means a lot that they get to see me compete like this and that it's going so well," says Åstedt, who had trouble finding joy and self-confidence before the European Championships.
There, she broke a personal record in the 100-meter freestyle, reaching the semifinals, and swam strongly in two Swedish relay teams in the team event.
In total, the quartet improved the Swedish record by 15.55 seconds during the heats and finals.
It was modest at the start in an event where Sweden had not been much involved.
But still.
Sweden was in the lead for 300 meters until the eventual gold medallists, Great Britain, passed by.
Robin Hanson recorded 1:46.71 on the opening leg and took Sweden to the top.
"It was fun, I saw this as a chance for revenge from my individual 200 race. It was fun to win the first leg," says Hanson, who advanced to the individual semifinals.
Ludvig Bartolek (1:48.10), Elvira Mörtstrand (1:59.04) and Sofia Åstedt (1:58.25) were the others in the Swedish team.
Great Britain's winning time was 7:24.13, and the margin of victory over second-place Germany was 1.3 seconds. Russia, competing under a neutral flag, came third.
