ROME : Dutch swimmer Marrit Steenbergen broke the women’s 100 metres freestyle world record on Saturday, clocking 51.68 seconds at the Sette Colli International Trophy to eclipse the mark that had stood since 2017.
The 26-year-old bettered the previous world record of 51.71 seconds, set by Sweden’s Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom at the 2017 World Championships.
“It still feels so weird … I hope that it will sink in,” Steenbergen said after setting the record.
“But it’s always when someone goes faster you see that it’s going faster in the last few years. It’s always when someone does it more people start doing it, like it’s a form of motivation.
“So I think more people will start swimming 52-lows, 51s, because it always goes like that, and I think that’s really good for the sport.”
Steenbergen finished seventh in the 100 metres freestyle final at the Paris Olympics in 2024, won by Sjostrom, but has emerged as the leading force in the event since the Swede began maternity leave.
She responded to her Olympic disappointment by successfully defending her world title in Singapore last year, edging Australia’s former world champion Mollie O’Callaghan, and was later named European Aquatics’ Women’s Swimmer of the Year for 2025.
Steenbergen had hinted at record-breaking form in May when she swam 51.86 seconds at the Mare Nostrum meeting in Canet, France.
“I really enjoy racing now, and I feel like I believe more in myself. Especially in the 100 I’m like, ‘I know how to do it, I know what I want. Let’s go,'” she said.
It was the second world record Sjostrom has lost this month after American Kate Douglass set a new women’s 50 metres freestyle mark of 23.59 seconds at a U.S. Pro Swim Series meet in Indianapolis, improving on Sjostrom’s previous record of 23.61 seconds set at the 2023 World Championships.
