For the first time in 2025, a world record was set in swimming. On Saturday, Lukas Maertens of Magdeburg, Germany set the world record in the men’s 400 metre freestyle with a time of 3:39.96 by winning the Swim Open Stockholm in Sweden. Maertens is the first swimmer ever to swim under three minutes and 40 seconds.
Who had the previous world record?
Interesting it was another German swimmer who had the previous world record. Paul Biedermann of Halle, Germany had a time of 3:40.07 when he won the gold medal in the men’s 400 metre freestyle at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, Italy on July 26, 2009. Biedermann’s world record lasted almost 16 years. That is the longest the world record has ever stood for, since the world record was first kept in the men’s 400 metre freestyle in 1908.
Biedermann, meanwhile, still has the world record in the men’s 200 metre freestyle. He posted a winning time of 1:42.00 in winning the gold medal at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome.
Inside look at Maertens’s world record
It was a German sweep in Stockholm. Oliver Klemet of Wehrheim won the silver medal with a time of 3:43.40. Florian Wellbrock of Bremen won the bronze medal with a time of 3:45.29. Maertens comfortably reached the podium by 7.42 seconds over Kieran Smith of the United States, who had a fourth place time of 3:47.38.
Maertens is one of two swimmers who has set a current world record in Sweden. The other is Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, who set the world record in the women’s 50 metre butterfly at the 2014 Swedish Swimming Championships in Boras on July 5, 2014. Sjostrom also has the world record in the women’s 50 metre freestyle and women’s 100 metre freestyle.
Olympic gold medalist
Maertens won the gold medal in the men’s 400 metre freestyle at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. At last year’s Olympics, he posted a winning time of 3:41.78.
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