{"id":651679,"date":"2026-08-16T12:09:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=651679"},"modified":"2026-08-16T12:09:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T19:09:52","slug":"dms-and-elevator-texts-pan-pacs-reacts-to-johannes-liebmann-world-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/dms-and-elevator-texts-pan-pacs-reacts-to-johannes-liebmann-world-record\/","title":{"rendered":"DMs and Elevator Texts: Pan Pacs Reacts to Johannes Liebmann World Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

DMs and Elevator Texts: Pan Pacs Swimmers React to Johannes Liebmann World Record<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bobby Finke<\/strong> was done shaving Saturday morning ahead of the final day of the Pan Pacific Championships when he opened Instagram. He was confused as to why he had a slew of DMs, most of them from people he didn\u2019t now.<\/p>\n

The subject caused him to hop over to the results of the European Championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not really expecting to get out of re-shaving and then get alerts on my phone. It\u2019s kind of funny, people DM you, like just random people DM you, like yo, change your bio,\u201d Finke said. \u201cI’m like, what happened, guys? And I checked the results, and I was really shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finke\u2019s bio lists him as a world record holder. That\u2019s now former record holder after Johannes Liebmann,<\/strong> the 19-year-old German, dashed his mark in the 1,500 freestyle by more than four seconds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Liebmann won the event at Euros in Paris in 14:25.79. It\u2019s a stunning drop of 3.88 seconds from Finke\u2019s time in Paris, which trimmed .35 ticks off Sun Yang\u2019s record from the 2012 Olympics.<\/p>\n

For perspective, Finke\u2019s record was 3.89 seconds quicker than the world record set by Grant Hackett<\/strong> \u2026 in 2001. That\u2019s 23 years and a revolution in suit-making technology to fall four seconds, then two years to go the next four thanks to Liebmann.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s one where you look and it\u2019s gob smacking to see someone break a world record by four seconds,\u201d Aussie Lani Pallister<\/strong> said after her win over Katie Ledecky<\/strong> in the 800 freestyle<\/a>. \u201cIt’s honestly unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n