Debbie Meyer was just 16 when she raced to historic golds over 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle at the 1968 Olympic Games.

Today, July 27, back in 1967, she set the first of her World records over 400m freestyle, part of a collection of 14 global long-course standards: 200m (1); 400m (5); 800m (4) and 1500m (4) between 1967 and 1970.

The 58th anniversary of the mark coincides with the 400m freestyle finals at the 22nd edition of the World Championships in Singapore 2025, with Summer McIntosh and Katie Ledecky the favourites for the crown. Both the 400m freestyle records for women and men have fallen this year, to McIntosh, in 3:54.18 and Germany's Lukas Märtens, in the first sub-3:40 effort in history, 3:39.96:

Summer Lightning Strikes Twice: McIntosh Smokes Titmus’ 400m Free WR in 3:54.18

Faster than Tim Shaw 1974; finishing 100m as fast as Shane Gould’s 100m WR in 1972. The WR splits compared: 56.95; 1:56.42; 2:55.65; 3:54.18 McIntosh - Victoria, June 7, 2025; 56.92; 1:56.94; 2:56.90; 3:55.90 Titmus - Fukuoka, July 23, 2023

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Märtens Takes Down Shiny Biedermann & Textile Thorpe With Game-Changing 3:39.96 WR In Stockholm 400 Free

What it took for Lukas Märtens to break Paul Biedermann’s Word record: at 51.90 he matched Mark Spitz’s first 100m free World record in 1970; at 1:47.55, he matched the third of Michael The Albatross Gross’ 200m free World records, from 1984

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Below, the story of American Meyer, including her memory of a change of guard to Australians Karen Moras and then Shane Gould.