No Stopping Steenbergen: High 5 Of Golds With Euro Records No3 and 4 In 200IM & 100 Free
Marrit Steenbergen collected more triple-Olympic-champion record scalps at the Euro s/c Champs this evening: inside Katinka Hosszu's 2014 standard, on 2:01.83 in the 200IM, she then broke Sarah Sjöström's 100 free mark in 50.42 + the meet mark that had stood to former teammate Ranomi Kromowidjojo
Call the finest, fastest trophy cabinet maker and get him to add a new level, gilded in gold before Marrit Steenbergen gets home from Lublin and the Euro short-course Championships!
By the close of play this evening, the 25-year-old had taken her tally to five golds (100/200 free, 100/200IM, women's 4x50 free) - all the solo wins in European record times - a silver (4x50 mixed medley) and a bronze (4x50 mixed freestyle) in five days.
The latest Dutch queen of sprinting from the Eindhoven performance centre claimed two more titles this evening, first in the 200m medley, then the 100m freestyle - and in doing so, she took down two more European records that had stood to triple Olympic champions, Katinka Hosszú, of Hungary, and Sarah Sjöström, of Sweden.
In the 200m medley, Steenbergen, coached by Patrick Pearson, clocked 2:01.83 for victory inside the 2014 mark set by Hosszu. The Dutch ace then retired to the fray7 in the 100m free at the end of day 5, the penultimate day of racing in Lublin, for a 50.42 victory inside Sjöström's 2017 standard.
The meet marks also fell in both races, of course, Hosszu having held the medley high bar, while the freestyle championship record had stood to Ranomi Kromowidjojo, former teammate a and double Olympic 50/200 free champion of London 2012, since 2017.
A decade ago, Steenbergen made her senior international podium debut at the European S/C Championships in Israel at the age of 15: bronze in the 100m medley. This week in Lublin, she's celebrated her first three solo golds at the event, and now has four tiles to her name, after she and teammates triumphed in the 4x50 free on day 1 last Tuesday.
Thursday saw her take her first two European records off Hosszu and Sjöström, in the 100m medley and 200m freestyle:
Craig Lord
Steenbergen got her next party started in Lublin with a 2:01.83 that shaved 0.03sec off the European mark established by Hosszu at the 2014 World s/c Championships.
An Irish record of 2:04.78 landed Ellen Walshe the silver to dd to her nation's delight at claiming two golds (John Shortt and Daniel Wiffen) and as bronze (Wiffen in the 1500 this evening, see below) so far this week.
The bronze went to Anastasia Gorbenko, with Brits Freya Colbert and Katie Shanahan a snap for fourth.
In the 100m free final, Steenbergen had her feet on he wall ahead of the rest at the 50m mark, on 24.33, 0.22sec ahead of French challenger Beryl Gastaldello, who would be the Dutch World long-course champion's shadow to the close of battle. The clock stopped 50.42 to 50.60 in Steenbergen's favour, the bronze to Italian Sara Curtis in 51.26 ahead of another big improver on the clock this week, Britain's Eva Okaro.
In the lead-up to Lublin, 25-year-old Steenbergen tried a different approach. She skipped the national qualifier in Rotterdam and joined Caspar Corbeau as Dutch representatives on World Cup tour in North America. Coached by Patrick Pearson at the Eindhoven national performance centre, Steenbergen told reporter Natasja Weber at the Dutch newspaper deVolkskrant:
"I saw it as a fun challenge because I don't swim in World Cups that often. The races in America and Canada were high-level, with many strong American and Australian swimmers like Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass, and Mollie O'Callaghan."
During the World Cups, Steenbergen qualified for selection to Lublin, noted the relative weakness of her starts and turns compared to some of her international peers and rivals but extended her learning curve to personal experience: she'd never travelled to a major swim meet on her own before. Steenbergen told Weber:
"Caspar went with the Belgian team, so I travelled alone. The first few days in America were quite difficult. It's outside my comfort zone to approach people, but it all worked out well. It was a good experience for me."
In Lublin, it might have been six golds but for the way the program fell. So bloated is the championship race schedule, particularly when held over six days - and that despite the shedding of 4x100 and 4x200 relays - that women freestyle sprinters raced the semis of the 50m in the same session as the 100m final this evening.
Looking back on a soaring post-Paris Olympics 2025 season, Steenbergen told Weber:
"I only started training in January after taking a break after the Paris Games. When I was back in the water at the beginning of this year, I thought: I'm not going to be world champion this summer, of course. But the further I got into the season, the better it went, and that gave me a lot of confidence."
At Singapore 2025 World long-course championships, she retained the 100m freestyle title:
Craig Lord
