Marrit Steenbergen Unleashes 51.86 100 Free To Displace Anna Moesch As #2 Performer All-Time

2026 Mare Nostrum Tour — Canet

Just three days after firing off a brand new Dutch nationwide report of 52.13 within the ladies’s 100m freestyle occasion, 26-year-old Marrit Steenbergen took her lifetime greatest to thoroughly new territory en path to severely shaking up the all-time rankings.

Racing on day one of many second cease of the 2026 Mare Nostrum Tour in Canet, world champion Steenbergen unleashed a monster results of 51.86 to dip underneath the 52-second threshold for the primary time in her illustrious profession.

Steenbergen opened in 24.91, an uncharacteristically assertive entrance half, and closed in 26.95 to etch her identify into the historical past books.

In doing so, the Dutch dynamo downed Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden’s total Mare Nostrum and Canet cease information of 52.08 notched on the 2017 version of the tour. Sjostrom’s world report stays at 51.71, additionally established in 2017, though Steenbergen was simply 0.15 outdoors that benchmark.

Behind Steenbergen tonight was Olympic multi-medalist Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, who put up a still-stellar outing of 52.36, simply .34 off her best-ever 52.02, adopted by Canadian Olympian Taylor Ruck, who touched in 54.15.

Steenbergen’s end result comes on the heels of American Anna Moesch ripping a lifetime greatest and new U.S. nationwide report of 51.94 whereas racing on the ultimate day of the AP Race London International on Monday, May twenty fifth.

At the time, that phenomenal swim ranked the American #2 on the all-time performers record; nevertheless, now Steenbergen upped the ante with this otherworldly efficiency as an unimaginable reply again.

Top Ten Women’s LCM 100 Freestyle All-Time Performers:

1. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) – 51.71 (2017)
2. Marrit Steenbergen (NED) – 51.86, 2026
3. Anna Moesch (USA) – 51.94, 2026
4. Emma McKeon (AUS) – 51.96 (2021)
5. Siobhan Haughey (HKG) – 52.02 (2023)
6. Cate Campbell – 52.03 (2018)
7. Simone Manuel – 52.04 (2019)
8. Britta Steffen – 52.07 (2009)
9. Mollie O’Callaghan – 52.08 (2023)
10. Bronte Campbell – 52.27 (2018)

This caliber of mastery has been effervescent beneath the floor for Steenbergen for fairly a while now. She first broke via as a 15-year-old on the inaugural European Games, the place she amassed an unimaginable 6 medals, together with gold within the 100m freestyle, then in a time of 53.97.

The following yr, she made her first Dutch Olympic staff, representing her nation on the 2016 Games in Rio, the place she positioned thirty fourth total within the 200m IM.

The then-teen took a while off to are likely to a shoulder damage whereas additionally specializing in faculty earlier than she returned to competitors in 2019.

At the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, she helped the Dutch ladies’s 4x100m free relay place 4th total. Then in Paris, she positioned seventh within the ladies’s 100m free in a mark of 52.83.

Steenbergen is likely one of the most versatile swimmer on the planet and in full pressure with the LA 2028 Games on the horizon, prepared to hold on the large Dutch ladies’s sprinting custom that has handled us to the likes of Inge de Bruijn, Femke Heemskerk and Ranomi Kromowidjojo.

Steenbergen is already an 8-time Long Course World Championships medalist, 6-time Short Course World Championships medalist, 12-time Long Course European Championships medalist and 13-time Short Course European Championships medalist. The solely accolade lacking from her resume is an elusive Olympic medal.

“Author’s Note: While on a podcast with past SwimSwam staffer Mitch Bowmile in 2016, I remember calling out Steenbergen as a potential medalist in the women’s 100m free for the Rio Olympic Games. Apparently, I was at least 10 years too early!”