2025 SWIM OPEN STOCKHOLM
- Saturday, April 12th – Tuesday, April 15th
- Stockholm, Sweden
- LCM (50m)
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- Entries/Live Results
- Livestream (Pay-To-Watch)
Lukas Märtens shocked the world yesterday at the 2025 Stockholm Open. He broke Paul Biedermann‘s super-suited world record in the 400-meter freestyle from 2009, becoming the first swimmer under 3:40 with a 3:39.96. Märtens improved the world record by .11 seconds and jumped from fourth on the all-time standings as he improved on his previous lifetime best of 3:40.33.
Courtesy: Stockholm Open
The 23-year-old Märtens jumped on the race from the start in Stockholm. It’s a familiar race strategy from him; we saw it during the Olympic final in Paris, where he claimed gold. It’s also the approach he used when he set his previous lifetime best of 3:40.33, when he flipped at the halfway mark just .26 seconds off Biedermann’s pace. However, that split pales in comparison to his opening 200 meters in Stockholm. He split 1:47.55 en route to his new world record, which put him nearly 3.5 seconds ahead of Biedermann’s opening split.
Biedermann came back exceptionally fast over the back half of his swim, which took down Ian Thorpe‘s world record of 3:40.08. However, Märtens was able to hold on with a 1:52.41 back half to get his hand under the world record and the 3:40 barrier.
Splits Comparison:
| Märtens’ New World Record | Biedermann’s Former World Record | Märtens’ Previous Best Time | |
| 50m | 24.75 | 26.29 | 25.00 |
| 100m | 27.15 (51.90) | 28.13 (54.42) | 27.37 (52.37) |
| 150m | 27.75 | 28.01 | 27.87 |
| 200m | 27.90 (55.65/1:47.55) | 28.59 (56.60/1:51.02) | 28.35 (56.22/1:48.59) |
| 250m | 28.28 | 27.76 | 28.21 |
| 300m | 28.18 (56.46) | 28.39 (56.15) | 28.01 (56.22) |
| 350m | 28.38 | 27.13 | 28.12 |
| 400m | 27.57 (55.95/1:52.41) | 25.77 (52.90/1:49.05) | 27.40 (55.52/1:51.74) |
| Total Time | 3:39.96 | 3:40.07 | 3:40.33 |
View full interview with Lukas Märtens here https://www.swimopenstockholm.se/post/lukas-m%C3%A4rtens-on-his-wr-race
We love hearing Klara and Mikael as the announcers here in Sweden.
And what a race!
I wish I knew Swedish, I couldn’t even understand the man and it was still some of the best swimming announcing I’ve ever heard
Thanks for posting this and for Stockholm Open for supplying it. Looks like a very well run meet and glad the video isn’t tied up in the normal geo blocked rights rubbish.
On to the swim – amazing. Had to go out so hard. Second and third are top tier swims at this time of year which shows how insane this swim is.
Lovely photo between young Lukas and Biedermann on Martens Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/p/DIYu5vBtS7K/)
Just a reminder that the 2nd place finisher Oliver Klemet (3:43) is also the Olympic silver medalist in the 10k from Paris. If I´m an OW swimmer I wouldn´t want it to ever come down to a sprint finish against this guy
Tbf David Betlehem’s sprint finish is probably the best rn in OW. He won the sprint award in the World Cup circuit in the last few years and came home in the 1500 in Paris faster than Finke in the last 50.
51.90 is an insane first 100. its closer to thorpe’s 200 free pace than to his frontended 400 free pace, when not many people can keep up with the latter
Hot take but: we don’t need to call 3:40.07 a super-suited record. Biedermann only beat it by .01, so I feel like it’s a joint world record with him and Thorpe. Paul’s 200 free record is his, but this one is shared.
Technically and in reality, 3:40.07 is a super suited record.
Well the 3:40.07 is super-suited no matter how you look at it, because, you know, he was wearing a super-suit. If you want to refer to it as a joint record with Thorpe that’s fine but that doesn’t affect whether or not it’s a super-suited record. Also on the question of a shared record, most people on this site seem to view Thorpe’s record as the actual record and basically ignore the 3:40.07 (but they don’t hold it against Biedermann).
lol I think a lot of people DO hold it against Biedermann