German Johannes Liebmann crushed American Bobby Finke's world record in the 1500m freestyle to win the European Championships in Paris on Saturday.
Liebmann, a 19-year-old who has yet to compete in an Olympics or World Championships, clocked 14 minutes, 26.79 seconds, taking 3.88 seconds off Finke's world record from the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Liebmann took 12.88 seconds off his personal best of 14:39.67 from April.
He is part of a group of star German male distance swimmers, along with Lukas Märtens (Olympic gold medalist, world champion and world record holder in the 400m free) and Sven Schwarz (2025 World silver medalist in 800m, 1500m frees).
Liebmann is the youngest man to break the 1500m free world record since Australian Kieren Perkins did so at age 18 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Before Finke broke the world record, China's Sun Yang's world record from the London Olympics had stood for 12 years.
U.S. men still own five world records in long-course swimming: Aaron Peirsol in the 200m backstroke (from 2009), Caeleb Dressel in the 100m butterfly (from 2021) and three relays -- 4x100m free (from 2008), 4x200m free (from 2009) and 4x100m medley (from 2021).
Van Mathias brings a bonkers swimming comeback story to Pan Pacific ChampionshipsVan Mathias, out of swimming for two years, is now the fastest American breaststroker in history.
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