Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom has confirmed that she plans to race the 100-meter freestyle individually at the Paris Olympics. In an interview with Reuters from the Swedish team hotel in Eskilstuna, Sweden, she confirmed that she would race both the 100-meter freestyle and 50-meter freestyle individually.

“I didn’t know there were two days of rest after the 100m freestyle final and before the 50m freestyle started, so that obviously made me think about the decision I made earlier to only swim the 50m,” Sjostrom said.

“But because I have two days of rest between those events, it really opened up the opportunity to do both.”

The Tokyo schedule had the 100-meter freestyle final on the morning of the 50-meter freestyle heats, with semifinals a day later and finals the day after that. In Paris, however, the 100-meter freestyle heats and semifinals are on Tuesday, July 30, and the finals on Wednesday, July 31. Sjostrom then has two days off before the 50-meter freestyle heats on Saturday, August 3 – the same day as the 400-meter medley relay heats.

The 30-year-old Sjostrom is a four-time world champion in the 50-meter freestyle, but her best performances in the 100-meter track are four silver medals at the World Championships (including one more in 2022) and a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Sjostrom finished 5th in the 100 freestyle at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after breaking her elbow earlier that year. She finished 2nd in the 50 freestyle.

Earlier this year, Sjostrom announced she would not swim the 100-meter freestyle at the Olympics. But in early July, she did so after considering the 100-meter freestyle in addition to the 50.

It now appears she has confirmed that she wants to try for 100.

At the Sette Colli Trophy in late June, Sjostrom swam 52.57 in the 100-meter freestyle, her best time outside a World Championships event since 2017, and the 11th-best time of her career. She is the current world record holder in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 51.71 set at the 2017 World Championships. The next-fastest performer in that category who will compete in Paris is Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haugheywho swam 52.02 last October.