German swimmer Johannes Liebmann broke the men’s 1,500m freestyle world record by nearly four seconds at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris on Saturday.

The 19-year-old clocked 14 minutes 26.79 seconds, 3.88 seconds faster than the previous world record of 14:30.67 set by American Bobby Finke at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Liebmann also became the first swimmer to go under the 14-minute-30-second mark in the event.

Hungary’s Zalan Sarkany took silver in 14:39.45, while Liebmann’s German teammate Oliver Klemet completed the podium in 14:40.64, more than 12 seconds behind the champion.

The victory gave Liebmann his second gold medal at his maiden senior long-course European Championships. He had earlier won the 800m freestyle title in Paris, lowering his own European record to 7:37.59.

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Later in the day, Kate Douglass shattered the women’s 50m freestyle world record on Saturday, clocking 23.49sec in the heats at the Pan Pacific Championships to set a tantalising showdown with former record-holder Gretchen Walsh.

Douglass improved on the world mark of 23.55sec that fellow-American Walsh set on June 18 at the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome.

Douglass’s impressive performance came little more than 12 hours after she delivered the second-fastest 100m freestyle in history swimming the lead-off leg on the United States’s victorious 4x100m free relay.

She touched the wall in 51.69sec — one one-hundredth outside the world record set by Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands in June.

Published on Aug 15, 2026