The Swedish swimming podcast Snabbanan nabbed a big guest this week, talking to world record-holding butterflyer Sarah Sjostrom‘s coach Carl Jenner.
The podcast, hosted by Ola Stromberg, is completely in English in its conversation with Jenner, originally from Great Britain. Jenner has coached in Sweden for several decades now, and has been the main trainer for Sweden’s biggest name, the world butterfly champion Sjostrom.
We’ve got links to check out the podcast in full below. Stromberg and Jenner cover a wide range of topics, from how Jenner originally started coaching Sjostrom to what the post-Rio future might hold for the Swedish swimmer.
Of special note, Jenner says he believes his athlete can swim even faster this coming summer than she did last year when she set the world record and became just the second woman ever under 56 seconds in the 100 fly. Jenner specifically points out starts and walls as areas of potential improvement for Sjostrom, who has been insanely good the past few years in her swimming between the walls.
Jenner, humorously understated in many of his descriptions of Sjostrom, says she is focused on bringing home medals in multiple events from Rio, noting that while she’s the world’s best flyer at the moment, she’s also a “pretty decent freestyler.” Sjostrom, of course, could be a gold medal contender in the 50, 100 and even 200 freestyles based on her past production.
Jenner also touches on Sjostrom’s preparation for the 200 free in Rio, an event she did not contest at last summer’s World Championships, plus his thoughts on Sjostrom’s training overall and her future career after the Rio Olympics wind down.
You can check out the podcast by following these links:
So glad SwimSwam posted the links! Tack sa mycket!
Hope Sarah will nail this Olympic Games, she deserves it so much. Lycka till!
nah sjostrom is so far ahead of both Dana vollmer and Kelsi worrell. Sjostrom swims 56 secs almost every time she gets into the pool.
Dana vollmer and kelsi worrell could push and contend for medals possibly for gold
Imo, Ottesen and Vollmer will be the challengers. They’re the only girls I see realistically swimming around the 56 mark other than Sarah. Both also like to go out fast(often faster than Sarah), so we could have an exciting swim.
Sarah should only focus on her swim and to beat her own record, if she does then the gold medal will come as a result. If she starts thinking 56.0 might do she’s in the wrong mindset.
Talented girl. I must admit I found it a bit demoralizing when she came here and broke 2 US Open records. It’s not like the US Open records are slow.
She’ll likely put a damper on the Campbell Sister’s Rio domination.
Sjostrom’s position in W100fly is akin to Ledecky’s over 400/800; barring illness or injury ruling her out or massively compromising her campaign her gap of superiority over the field is such that she doesn’t have to be right on her very best to win.
However the freestyle races are another matter. She could very easily fly home from Rio with at least 3 individual gold but just as easily with only the 100fly gold and 2-3 minor coin.
In the 100free, she is essentially line-ball with the Campbells and this race could go any way between them. The 50free is slightly more open with Kromowidjojo and potentially Halsall entering the equation but again a lottery when it comes to… Read more »
As it was said just yesterday , Ledecky will be her biggest opponent in the 200 free for the win – hands down . In the 100 fly , she is a rocket hard to catch . 100 free ? everything is possible as for the 50 free . The field is impressive in those last 2 events .
She will be part of the 2 relays for Sweden as well most probably ,
Sjostrom will be part of all three SWE female relays (all three have qualified for Rio but given their relative depth, that will entail swimming both heats and finals of all three.
With the two freestyle relays, its likely to be a case of “close but no cigar” given their lack of a competitive fourth swimmer for both. The 4×200, excepting USA, was an unusually slow race in Kazan and one would expect a number of countries to be much stronger in Rio.
Whilst they could medal in the 4XMED, I suspect it will be difficult defending their medal from Kazan. USA will be smarting from missing the podium and already the BRS leg is looking better. Likewise AUS… Read more »
Carl is always a good interview(in Swedish too, mind you). Good listen.