Marrit Steenbergen breaks nine-year-old 100m freestyle swimming world file

Four-time world champion Marrit Steenbergen etched her identify into swimming historical past by including a brand new title to her spectacular résumé: world-record holder.

The Dutchwoman broke the 100m freestyle world file, one of many sport’s blue-riband dash occasions, on the Sette Colli meet in Rome, Italy, with a shocking efficiency on Saturday, 28 June.

Steenbergen, the reigning world gold medallist over the space, clocked *51.68 seconds on the Foro Italico, shaving three hundredths of a second off Olympic champion Sarah Sjöström’s 51.71 mark from 2017.

The three-time Olympian received the race forward of Siobhán Haughey of Hong Kong, China, whereas Sara Curtis took bronze in an Italian file of 52.69.

Before her record-breaking swim in Italy, the 26-year-old Steenbergen was the second-fastest lady in historical past. She now leads the all-time record forward of Sweden’s Sjöström, with the USA’s Anna Moesch third following her 51.94 swim final May.

Steenbergen is the primary Dutch feminine swimmer to set a world file in a person Olympic occasion in 17 years. Marleen Veldhuis was the final to take action, breaking the ladies’s 50m freestyle world file in 2009.

*Pending ratification by World Aquatics