Sweden’s World Champion Sarah Sjostrom has been nominated for a pair of major awards in Sweden: the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal and the Jerring Prize.
The former award has been given out on an annual basis since 1925 by the paper Svenska Dagbladet. It honors individuals or teams that had “the most significant Swedish sports achievement of the year.” Individual athletes are limited to winning the award no more than twice, and to receive it even a second time, it takes a truly magical performance.
Six swimmers all time have won the award, speaking to the subtly-illustrious history of swimming in Sweden, even among a ski-mad sports culture. Previous winners include Arne Borg in 1926, Bjorn Borg in 1938, Jane Cederqvist in 1960, Gunnar Larsson in 1970, Lars Frolander in 2000, And Therese Alshammar in 2011.
Sjostrom’s 2013 resume includes winning the gold medal at the World Championships in the 100 fly: reclaimiming her throne as the world’s best for the first time since breaking the World Record in 2009 at just 15 years old (note that she did not win the award for that achievement, as it instead went to Helena Ekholm for her Biathlon World Championship).
The other 5 nominees are:
- Henrik Stenson – Worlds’ #3-ranked men’s golfer
- Johan Olsson – 2013 World Champion in the 50km cross-country ski event – the country’s first in major competition in over 20 years.
- Abeba Aregawi – World Champion in the 1500 meters in track
- Men’s Hockey Team – 2013 World Champions
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic – professional soccer player, who scored a hat trick in a friendly in August against Norway.
Sjostrom has also been nominated among 16 finalists in for the Jerring Prize, which is voted on publicly. After December 19th, the pool will be reduced to 8, and the winner will be announced at the Sports Gala on January 13th. The award, given by Radiosporten, can be voted for online here. A full list of finalists, along with voting phone numbers, can be seen here.