The Arena Elite Team becomes even stronger thanks to young Swedish talent Sarah Sjöström
Sarah is today considered one of the main female swimming talents in the world. In 2008, when only 14 years old, she burst onto the European scene by winning gold in the 100m fly at the European Championships in Eindhoven, thus beating the reigning champion Inge Dekker. At the semifinal, on the day before, Sjöström had also set the new Swedish record for the distance at 58.38, smashing the previous record held by Anna Karin Kammerling (58.71).
Again in 2008 the youthful Sjöström won silver in the 4x50m freestyle relay at the European Short Course Championships in Rijeka. She was elevated to world level in 2009 when, at the World Championships in Rome, she amazed everybody by grabbing top spot on the podium in the 100m fly, in front of the Australian Jessicah Schipper (56''23) and the Chinese Liuyang Jiao (56''86). Seventh after the first length, Sjöström managed to catch up in a recovery worthy of a true champion, beating her opponents and setting a new world record of 56.06, wiping out Dutch swimmer Inge De Bruijin’s record that had stood for nine years.
The seventeen-year-old from Handen confirmed her strengths and her talent by ensuring continuity in her results in the final phases of the 2009 professional season. At the 2009 Fina - Arena World Cup Sjöström demonstrated great versatility and talent both in butterfly and in freestyle at short and medium distance, winning gold in the 200m FS at two stages (Moscow and Berlin). Then, at the last meeting of the 2009 season, at the European Championships in Istanbul (25m), the young champion clinched two silvers in the 4x50m FS relay and 4x50m medley relay. Sarah, who has signed a technical sponsorship contract for the next two years, will don the Arena logo at the side of other female stars such as Rebecca Soni, Olympic Champion in 100m breaststroke and World Champion in 200m breaststroke), Lotte Friis (World Champion 1500m freestyle) and Inge Dekker (Olympic and World Champion 4x100m freestyle).
"Sarah represents one of those pure and absolutely unique talents that every sports brand dreams of working with and we are very proud about her entry into our Team – stated Giuseppe Musciacchio, Arena Group Marketing Director . A key founding principle of our international Elite Team is precisely that of standing alongside and supporting young talents with the best technical equipment right from the start, in order to accompany them in their professional career, from daily training to successes in the pool at major competitions. Sarah’s outstanding professional growth over the last two years confirms the Swedish Federation’s solid commitment to the development of swimming talents and I can say that Arena is particularly delighted to have had an important technical partnership with this Federation over the last couple of years.”
"By signing this contract with Arena – said Sarah Sjöström - I have the possibility to better focus on my training and racing with the consciousness of having a solid and reliable partner on my side. Now I can look forward to the next big swimming events knowing that I have the best possible equipment at hand”.
"Sarah is very happy for this contract – said Sjöström’s manager and legal advisor Martin Klette from Wagnsson Sports & Entertainment, Stockholm. Arena has really shown how strongly they wanted Sarah to be a member of their international elite team".
Since 1973, Arena creates and markets waterwear products for competitive swimmers and swim-fans and it is recognised as one of the premium brands for high quality swimwear and equipment. Over the last 36 years, the Company has developed a strong expertise in developing best in class products with particular focus on the Pool segment, while also gradually expanding into the Leisure/Beach segment.Nowadays, Arena operates with commercial subsidiaries in Italy, France and Germany and through a network of worldwide distributors and licensees. The Arena brand is present in 80 countries worldwide, out of which 70 are directly managed by the Arena Group (6 through commercial subsidiaries and 64 through distributors and licensees), while in the Far East (10 countries) the brand is owned and managed by the Descente Group.
The genuine liaison of Arena to the world of sport and in particular to swimming competitions is enhanced by sponsoring activities at different levels, including governing bodies, national federations, athletes and clubs. The Arena Elite Team of international swimming stars, includes Champions such as the Brazilian champion Cesar Cielo (22), gold medal in the 50m freestyle and in the 100m freestyle at the World Championships in Rome as well as a gold medal in the 50m freestyle in Beijing; the Frenchman Alain Bernard (26), world silver in Rome and Olympic gold in Beijing in the 100m freestyle; the German Paul Biedermann (23) world champion in the 200 and 400m freestyle, only athlete in the world to have beaten Michael Phelps, at the same time setting 2 new world records; the many-times Olympic champion Aaron Peirsol (USA 26), gold medal in the 200m backstroke and in the 4x100m medley relay at the World Championships in Rome and gold medal in the 100m backstroke and in the 4x100m medley relay at the Olympic Games in Beijing; Rebecca Soni (USA, 21), Olympic champion of 200m breaststroke and World champion and World record holder in the 100m breaststroke; Eric Shanteau (USA, 26), gold medalist in 4x100 Medley Relay and Silver Medalist in 100m Breaststroke in Rome; Thomas Lurz (29), gold in the 5km for three successive world championships, including the World Championships in Rome where he also won the 10km; the Tunisian Oussama Mellouli world and Olympic 1500m freestyle champion; the Serb Milorad Cavic (25), gold medal in the 50m butterfly and silver medal in the 100m butterfly in Rome and Olympic runner-up in the 100m butterfly; the Hungarian Laszlo Cseh (24), silver medal in the 200m medley and bronze in the 400m medley in Rome and three times silver medal in Beijing (200, 400m medley and 200m butterfly); the Norwegian Alexander Dale Oen (23), silver medal in Beijing and European record holder in the 100m breaststroke and silver in the 100m breaststroke; the South Africans Cameron van der Burgh (21), gold medal and world record in the 50m breaststroke and silver in the 100m breaststroke at the World Championships in Rome, Roland Schoeman, Olympic champion at Athens in the 4x100m relay (2004) and twice world champion in the 50m butterfly in Montreal (2005) and in Melbourne (2007) and Suzaan Van Biljon (21), winner of the gold medal in the 200m breaststroke at the recent world short course championships in Manchester; the Danish swimmer Lotte Friis (21), world champion in the 800m freestyle and silver in the 1500m freestyle, as well as the Polish champions Pavel Korzeniowski (24), silver medal in the 200m butterfly at the World Championships in Rome, and Mateusz Sawrymowicz (22), gold medal in the 1500m freestyle at the World Championships in Melbourne (2007).
Arena is also title sponsor of the FINA - ARENA Swimming World Cup, historic partner of the LEN (Ligue Europeenne de Natation), and technical sponsor and official supplier to many swimming Federations such as Russia, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Croatia, Norway, South Africa, New Zealand, Ukraine , Romania, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Estonia.
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