The International Swimming League is a competition that began in 2019 comprising of seven swimming meets taking place in seven cities around the world. The final meet concludes tomorrow, the 21st of December in Las Vegas and at the time of writing Betsson’s Ambassador Sarah Sjöström is sitting at top of the standings.
Sarah Sjöström became an Ambassodor for Betsson in 2017 and despite not doing any promotional work for the Swedish company, she is still listed on their website in that role.
At only 26-years-old, it is astounding to think that Sjöström has already competed in 3 Olympic games, winning the gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly at the 2016 Rio Olympics and simultaneously setting a World record with a time of 55.48, making her the first Swedish woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
At the same games she also won silver and bronze medals in the 200 m and 100 m freestyle respectively, becoming only the 5th swimmer to win medals in both the 100 m and 200 m freestyle and the 100 m butterfly at the same Olympics.
If all this wasn’t impressive enough, Sjöström also holds 4 long course world records; the 50 m and 100 m freestyle and the 50 m and 100 m butterfly and 2 short course world records in the 200 m freestyle and the 100 m butterfly.
In 2017 she joined the Betsson team and took part in a series of promotions, including a stunt where she was challenged to complete 17 swim badges in 17 minutes. She did so in 16 minutes and 26 seconds, with Betsson subsequently donating 100,000 SEK to the Swedish swim association who would go on to use the money to fund coaching places in the country.
International Swimming League Final Day
As the teams head into the final day of the yearlong International Swimming League, Sjöström is looking to be the swimmer most likely to leave the pool with the most points. The event is a sort of Ryder Cup of swimming, with 4 teams from the US and 4 from Europe, each one made up of male and female swimmers. Like 20/20 cricket, it is fast paced and clearly aimed at a younger audience more likely to buy into the bells and whistles that come with pool side DJs and the team element than they would tradition swim meets.
The swimmer with the most points come the end of the tournament is crowned as the MVP and as much as Sjöström will want to see her team do well she will also have her eye on that particular prize:
“The most important thing is to get points for my team but I have a big lead for MVP so it would be very nice to keep that. I just need to continue like I’ve been doing and hopefully even a little bit better because it’s the final so we’ll see. It would be very cool to win the first MVP award.”
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