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Reuters

Dutch swimmer Marrit Steenbergen broke the women’s 100 metres freestyle world record on Saturday, ⁠clocking 51.68 seconds at the ⁠Sette Colli International Trophy in Rome.
The 26-year-old reigning world champion bettered the 51.71 that Sweden’s Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom posted at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest.
Steenbergen finished ahead of Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (52.52) and Italy’s Sara Curtis (52.69) in the Rome meet.
Haughey had led at the midway point in 24.94 but Steenbergen pulled out a huge turn and expanded her margin.
A two-time world champion in the 100 freestyle – Doha 2024 and Singapore 2025 – Steenbergen is the only woman to break 52 seconds in the discipline on multiple occasions.

“It still feels so weird … I hope that it will ‌sink in,” Steenbergen said after beating the world record.
“But it’s always when someone goes faster you see that it’s going faster in the past [few] years. It’s always when someone does it, more people start doing it – like it’s a form of motivation.
“So I think more people will start ⁠swimming 52-lows, 51s, because it always goes like that, and I think that’s really ‌good for the sport.”
Steenbergen finished seventh behind Sjostrom in the 100m final at the 2024 Paris Olympics but has been setting ‌the standards since the Swede went on maternity leave.
She bounced back ⁠from her Paris ⁠disappointment by defending her world title in Singapore last year, holding off Australia’s former world champion Mollie ‌O’Callaghan. She was also voted European Aquatics’ best women’s swimmer of 2025 after retaining her title.
Steenbergen had signalled ‌her ‌intent earlier this year, clocking 51.86 seconds on the south coast of France ‌at the Canet stop of the Mare Nostrum series in May, when Haughey also finished second in a stellar 52.36, just 0.34 off her best of 52.02.












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“I really enjoy ⁠racing now, and I feel like I believe more in myself. Especially in the ⁠100 I’m like, ‘I know how to do it, I know what I want. Let’s go’,” Steenbergen added.
It was the second world record Sjostrom has ‌lost this month, with ‌American Kate Douglass breaking the women’s 50m freestyle world record at a US Pro Swim Series event in Indianapolis.
The 24-year-old clocked 23.59 seconds to better the 23.61 set by Sjostrom at the 2023 world championships in Japan.


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Marrit Steenbergen overhauls Siobhan Haughey to break women’s 100m freestyle world record

Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands celebrates after setting a world record in the women’s 100-metre freestyle at in Rome on Saturday. Photo: AP

Marrit Steenbergen is the only woman to break 52 seconds in the event more than once. Photo: AP

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Hong Kong

Other Sport

Netherlands’ two-time world champion betters 2017 mark after overtaking the Hong Kong swimmer at the midway point at Rome meet


Netherlands’ two-time world champion betters 2017 mark after overtaking the Hong Kong swimmer at the midway point at Rome meet.


Siobhan Haughey

Lisa Curtis

Kate Douglass

Marrit Steenbergen overhauls Siobhan Haughey to break women’s 100m freestyle world record

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Netherlands’ two-time world champion betters 2017 mark after overtaking the Hong Kong swimmer at the midway point at Rome meet

Netherlands’ two-time world champion betters 2017 mark after overtaking the Hong Kong swimmer at the midway point at Rome meet