2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- July 23 to 30, 2023
- Fukuoka, Japan
- Marine Messe Fukuoka
- LCM (50m)
- WORLD CHAMPS WATCH PARTY – DAILY
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Entry Book
- Live Results (Omega)
- Day 1 Prelims Live Recap | Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Live Recap | Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Live Recap | Day 3 Finals Live Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Live Recap | Day 4 Finals Live Recap
- Day 5 Prelims Live Recap | Day 5 Finals Live Recap
- Day 6 Prelims Live Recap | Day 6 Finals Live Recap
- Day 7 Prelims Live Recap | Day 7 Finals Live Recap
- Day 8 Prelims Live Recap| Day 8 Finals Live Recap
Braden Keith contributed to this report.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom already made history by firing off a new World Record in the semi-finals of the women’s 50m freestyle but the 29-year-old took things one step further in the final of the race.
Sjostrom crushed a new World Record time of 23.61 during last night’s semi-finals and got to the wall this evening just .01 outside that in 23.62. She beat the field by nearly half a second, as Australian Shayna Jack scored silver in 24.10 while Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei bagged bronze in 24.15.
With her victory, 29-year-old Sjostrom overtook American Olympic icon Michael Phelps as the swimmer with the most individual World Championships medals in history.
The Swede now owns 21 individual medals to overtake retired Phelps’ total of 20.
Phelps still has far-and-away the most total medals (33) thanks to America’s relay strength. He has 13 relay medals as compared to just one for Sjostrom.
Phelps and Sjostrom both won their first World Championship medals, each gold, when they were only 15 years old. Sjostrom won her first medal at 15 when she broke the World Record in the women’s 100m fly at the 2009 World Championships. Phelps won his first at the 2001 World Championships (also in Fukuoka) in the 200 fly, also in a World Record time. For both of them, that was the only medal of their World Championship debuts.
Phelps’ total came across six World Championship meets – he missed the last two of his career: he was retired during the 2013 World Championships, and he “mutually withdrew” from the 2015 World Championships after his second DUI arrest. Sjostrom, meanwhile, has competed at every World Championships since 2009, making for eight meets – though she only won medals at seven of them (she was 4th in the 200 free, 50 fly, and 100 fly in Shanghai 2011).
Sjostrom’s Individual Medals
By color
- Gold – 12
- Silver – 6
- Bronze – 3
By event
- 50 fly – 5
- 100 fly – 5
- 100 free – 5
- 50 free– 5
- 200 free – 1
| MEDAL | YEAR | EVENT |
| Gold | Rome 2009 | 100 fly |
| Gold | Barcelona 2013 | 100 fly |
| Gold | Kazan 2015 | 50 fly |
| Gold | Kazan 2015 | 100 fly |
| Gold | Budapest 2017 | 50 free |
| Gold | Budapest 2017 | 50 fly |
| Gold | Budapest 2017 | 100 fly |
| Gold | Gwangju 2019 | 50 fly |
| Gold | Budapest 2022 | 50 free |
| Gold | Budapest 2022 | 50 fly |
| Gold | Fukuoka 2023 | 50 fly |
| Gold | Fukuoka 2023 | 50 free |
| Silver | Barcelona 2013 | 100 free |
| Silver | Kazan 2015 | 100 free |
| Silver | Budapest 2017 | 100 free |
| Silver | Gwangju 2019 | 50 free |
| Silver | Gwangju 2019 | 100 fly |
| Silver | Budapest 2022 | 100 free |
| Bronze | Kazan 2015 | 50 free |
| Bronze | Gwangju 2019 | 100 free |
| Bronze | Gwangju 2019 | 200 free |
Phelps’ Individual Medals
By color
- Gold – 15
- Silver – 5
- Bronze – 0
By event
- 100 fly – 5
- 200 fly – 5
- 200 IM – 4
- 200 free – 4
- 400 IM – 2
| MEDAL | YEAR | EVENT |
| Gold | Fukuoka 2001 | 200 fly |
| Gold | Barcelona 2003 | 200 fly |
| Gold | Barcelona 2003 | 200 IM |
| Gold | Barcelona 2003 | 400 IM |
| Gold | Montreal 2005 | 200 free |
| Gold | Montreal 2005 | 200 IM |
| Gold | Melbourne 2007 | 200 free |
| Gold | Melbourne 2007 | 100 fly |
| Gold | Melbourne 2007 | 200 fly |
| Gold | Melbourne 2007 | 200 IM |
| Gold | Melbourne 2007 | 400 IM |
| Gold | Rome 2009 | 100 fly |
| Gold | Rome 2009 | 200 fly |
| Gold | Shanghai 2011 | 100 fly |
| Gold | Shanghai 2011 | 200 fly |
| Silver | Barcelona 2003 | 100 fly |
| Silver | Montreal 2005 | 100 fly |
| Silver | Rome 2009 | 200 free |
| Silver | Shanghai 2011 | 200 free |
| Silver | Shanghai 2011 | 200 IM |
Why are news organizations not counting Phelps’ 2004 world championship gold medal in the 200 freestyle 🤔 seems like some very odd counting, to push a certain narrative. Nobody has qualified only long course, just world championship individual event.
Sjostrom has 11 short course medals (6 gold) and Phelps has 1. If they wanted to push a narrative towards Sarah then they could have included her extra 10 to be well above anyone else
Sprint GOAT
I’ve often played with the idea of counting a swimmer’s records / places on all-time lists without including that swimmer’s previous performances. So if the world record holder swims a time that only they have bettered, it counts as a “world record” under this system.
There are plenty of pros and cons to this approach, and I’m not saying it’s the best one, but one thing I like is that it removes the beginning-career bias where it gets progressively harder for a transcendent swimmer to set records as their career progresses, even if their dominance against the rest of the world hasn’t changed.
Here are the without-self individual world records at this meet (max 1 per event):
Sjostrom: 2
… Read more »
With that metric it’s also kind of insane that Sarah has the 19 fastest times ever in the 50 fly (17 being under 25 sec) And the 4 fastest times ever in the 50 free…
Some helpful perspectives here. Would be fun to know their Aqua points in 2023 if the base was the 2nd fastest swimmer ever. Marchand’s 4IM gets 1017 AQUA points… How would Sjostrom and Ledecky have measured up if they didn’t already own the WR?
If I’ve calculated it properly Sjostrom’s 50 fly and Ledeky’s 1500 at this meet would both be 1041 AQUA points if we discounted their previous performances and compared them to 2nd best performer in history.
She had a WC medal from 3 decades.
Pretty rare company I’d imagine.
Definitely the best womens sprinter and no one is very close, who keeps getting faster. The 100 Free is looking good for next year if she only did 50/100 free and dropped the butterfly.
Don’t think she should do more than two events if gold is the goal
Sad that she never won 50-100 free Olympics gold and 100 free Worlds gold.
She is at disadvantage because she always swam all relays prelims and finals, while top sprinters from USA and Australia has more rests.
She was so spent in Rio that she didn’t qualify for 50 final.
If Sarah were American or Australian, she’d have many more medals, individuals and relays.
Kind of wild that Phelps only has 2 medals in the 400 IM
He only swam it twice at Worlds
0.01 from another 30k