Marrit Steenbergen Wins European Female Swimmer of the Year

After World Title and Continental Records, Marrit Steenbergen Wins European Female Swimmer of the Year

On two earlier events, Marrit Steenbergen had received World Championships gold medals, however each races, one briefly course and one in lengthy course, had been lacking among the world’s prime rivals. Not the case in 2025 as Steenbergen took down two vaunted rivals to safe world gold within the 100 freestyle. The 25-year-old from the Netherlands would add one relay bronze medal in Singapore, and she or he went on to dominate the European Short Course Championships to shut out the yr.

Those accomplishments made Steenbergen the selection for European Female Swimmer of the Year, succeeding Sarah Sjostrom as winner after the legendary Swede took the yr away from competitors. Sjostrom had received the award on 4 consecutive events, and that is the primary time since 2012 {that a} swimmer apart from Sjostrom and Katinka Hosszu had been the winner. Steenbergen turns into the third Dutch swimmer to win this title after fellow dash specialists Inge de Bruijn (1999-2001) and Ranomi Kromowidjojo (2012).

Sjostrom started the yr already thought-about among the many prime 100 freestylers on the earth after she received gold on the February 2024 version of the World Championships, a meet quite a few prime rivals skipped to prioritize their preparation for the Paris Olympics. Steenbergen went on to complete seventh within the occasion on the Games. But coming into this yr’s Worlds, she trimmed the 200 IM and 200 free from her lineup to prioritize her foremost occasion and make a run on the medals.

The resolution paid off as Steenbergen received a nail-biting ultimate. American Torri Huske, the top-ranked swimmer on the earth, had probably the most pace within the ultimate, however she couldn’t maintain on after a battle with gastrointestinal sickness. That left Steenbergen and Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan in a duel for gold after they flipped in an identical occasions of 25.34 on the midway level.

O’Callaghan received world titles on this occasion in 2022 and 2023 by coming from behind, and she or he had already claimed victory within the 200 free, however Steenbergen wouldn’t be denied. Home in 25.34, she touched in 52.55 to say gold by 0.12.

“At the 75-meter mark, I saw I was slightly ahead, but I knew Mollie just goes so fast in that second 50, and I felt like I was getting tired, so it’s like ‘Okay, just keep going, keep going.’ I tried not to look at her, so it was just at the finish that I knew for sure that I had her,” Steenbergen mentioned. “I don’t know what to feel, I’m just so happy.”

Earlier within the meet, Steenbergen had pulled off a borderline heroic feat within the girls’s 400 free relay on the meet’s opening day. The Dutch workforce had fallen to eighth place and greater than a second out of medal place when Steenbergen entered the water for the anchor leg, however she break up 51.64, by far the quickest of anybody within the subject. One by one, she picked off her rivals on the way in which to an exhilarating bronze medal.

After Worlds, Steenbergen would return to main competitors in December with the European Short Course Championships, the place she confirmed off her versatility on the way in which to 6 gold medals. She set European information on her method to gold within the 100 IM and 200 free in a single night time, then the 200 IM and 100 free in two days later, shifting into the top-four in historical past in all 4 races. She completed off the meet with one other European file within the 50 backstroke main off the Dutch girls’s 200 medley relay, leaping to No. 6 all-time whereas main a golden effort.

Those accomplishments on the worldwide and continental stage, a mix of big-race efficiency plus outstanding versatility, have secured Steenbergen’s standing among the many greatest swimmers on the earth.