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The Vortex - April 2025: Klemet Stands Tall As He Takes On Other German Giants At Berlin Showdown

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by Craig Lord

published April 30, 2025

There's Lukas Märtens at 1m 92, Florian Wellbrock, at 1m 91, and Sven Schwartz, at 1m 94. They're the fastest three 800 and 1500m freestylers Germany has ever produced. Then there's Oliver Klemet. He's 1m 75 ... but don't let height deceived you.

When Klemet takes to his blocks at German Championships in Berlin from tomorrow in the company of the teammates and rivals towering over him, he'll do so as a distance danger man standing tall.

Consider the threat of his speed and endurance either side of those 800-1500 events: on 3mins 42.81 over 400m freestyle at the Magdeburg derby, Gothaer & friends, this time a year ago, Klemet had clearly been working hard on the finishing speed he was chasing on the way to Olympic silver in the Marathon at Paris 2024 last August.

His 400m speed attracted attention for two key reasons: it elevated him to No3 all-time on the German ranks adrift the two men who are now the fastest two in the world all-time: Märtens, Klemet's training partner at the SC Magdeburg performance centre under the guidance of coach Bernd Berkhahn, and Paul Biedermann, the World record holder on 3:40.07 between Rome 2009 and earlier this month, the Märtens became history's sub-3:40 pioneer:

Klemet, 22, is from Wehrheim, and races for SG Frankfurt. He's in good form and good spirits heading into Nationals and Berlin trials for Singapore World Championships in July: last Saturday, he picked up his first World Cup Open Water win of his career. Either side of him on the podium after the 3km knockout 'sprints' in the Med were David Betlehem, the Hungarian who shared the Olympic podium with him last summer in Paris, and a third man less than 1m 80 tall, France's Marc-Antoine Olivier. Klemet is the shortest of all three, but the man standing tallest that day.

The Open Water cup event turned out well for Germany: Klemet's gold was matched by another for Germany when Lea Boy, from Würzburg.

All good prep for the days ahead in Berlin in the confines of a tank with four walls at the Europa-park pool. Klemet's 400m speed is critical to all his events. In open water, all the marathon men in contention can swim a very decent 400m, but Klemet is the fastest of them all over eight long-course lengths in the pool when it comes to excelling over 10km.

The open water 'knockout sprint' events are new - and divided into three events - a 1500m, a 1000m and a final 'sprint' 500m. They're also formatted in a way helpful to Klemet, the swimmer noted in an interview with the DSV (German Swimming Association):

"According to the rules, you can choose your starting positions for the next races in the order of the previous ones, so I could always start on the far left and swim freely."

In Ibiza, the German swimmer with Russian roots had the 3km challenge in his grip after two stages in the three-stage event: having taken the 1500 (15:44.7 minutes) and 1000 (9:59.6 minutes), the outcome of a 500m for a 3:42 400m man wasn't too difficult to predict. Klemet finished ahead by a 'comfortable' margin, in 4:50.5.

The conditions were somewhat different in the Seine last year, when the environment favoured those prepared to swim up close to the bank wall to avoid the worst of racing against the flow, while risking the thorns on the vegetation spilling down to the water's edge. Even so, the sprint finish was as crucial as it is in almost every marathon / open water race.

The tactic required swimmers with a fair few elements to consider, including the tummy bugs that followed for many, to hold their nerve, keep their place in the single-file row when swimming in the direction of the start and finish pontoon. And then, on the last lap be in a position to sprint for home. Klemet and the Hungarians got it more right than anyone else:

In Paris, he did not match his 3:42 best but finished seventh in 3:46.59. He qualified for the second berth in the 800m but gave up his place for Wellbrock, for whom the Games did not go as planned. Come the marathon, Wellbrock was in contention for most of the way when defending the marathon crown in Paris, until he fell back on the penultimate circuit and faded badly in the closing stages to finish eighth a minute outside the podium pace.

Klemet, having had a week of rest after the 400m, hit his taper and peak form perfectly for the 10km - for silver 2.1sec shy of Rasovsky, Betlehem winning the battle for bronze by 0.6 over Italy's Domenico Acerenza some 15sec back.

They say a swimmer is only as good as 'the last time out'. Here comes 'the next and last time' that will help to shape the Germany team for Singapore Worlds: Klemet will be racing alongside rivals 16-19 cms taller than him at the German Championships in Berlin from tomorrow - and standing tall as he does so.

Masiuk & Sieradzki Set Polish Records At Lublin Nationals

Ksawery Masiuk shaved 0.03sec off his Polish 100m backstroke record for a 52.55 victory on day 2 at National Championships in Lublin.

Out in 25.35, home in 27.20, the European bronze medallist and Paris Olympian raced a whisker in side the standard he set in his semi-final at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest on his way to sixth place in the final.

Early days on the 2025 World rankings, of course, but Masiuk's efforts places him seventh globally so far this year on a list topped by Russian Kliment Kolesnikov's 52.04. Kolesnikov has been out of top-flight international action since Putin launched his illegal invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

Meanwhile, Masiuk, 20, has qualified in the 100m on both butterfly and backstroke for the World Championships, which get underway in the pool in Singapore on July 27. On butterfly, Jakub Majerski topped he 100m final in 51.72, Masiuk second in 51.93.

In other action in Lublin, Kamil Sieradzki set a Polish men’s 200 free record of 1:46.02, 0.68 inside the Singapore cut and 0.17 inside the national mark that had been held at 1:46.19 by Kacper Majchrzak since the 2017 Universiade.

RESULTS IN FULL

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - April 30, 1971

**My day out on the trail of autographs, April 30, 1971**

Today marks the 54th anniversary of two World Records that represented a change of guard in women's freestyle swimming. On April 30, 1971, a shooting star called Shane Gould equalled fellow Australian Dawn Fraser's World record in the 100m freestyle, her 58.9sec sprint unfolding at the Coca-Cola International at London's Crystal Palace. In the same session, Gould's teammate Karen Moras took down the World record in the 400m freestyle, her 4:22.6 confining to history thew 4:24.3 clocked by American Debbie Meyer in August 1970.

The meet marked the last time we'd see Meyer in a global competition. She announced her retirement before trials for the Munich 1972 Olympics, her pantheon stacked with eternal achievements, including her victories over 200m, 400m and 800m at the Mexico 1968 Olympic Games that made her the first woman in swimming history to claim three gold medals in solo events at one Games.

The next would be Gould, guided by Forbes and Ursula Carlile, in Munich, where the Australian also claimed silver and bronze medals to go alongside her victories in the 200 and 400m freestyle and 200m medley, each gold claimed in World-record time. Those five solo medals remain the most ever won by a woman in individual events in the Olympic pool.

Meyer retired with 14 World freestyle records (200 - 5; 400 - 5; 1500 - 4) on her career chart, while Gould would set 10 World records (100 - 2; 200 - 3; 400 - 2; 800 - 1; 1500 - 2) between February 1971 and February 1973. For a part of that time, she held every world freestyle record from 100 to 1500 simultaneously, a feat not only never repeated since but unlikely top ever be matched, the spectrum of speed from Sarah Sjöstrom to Katie Ledecky reflecting an unbridgeable sprint-distance canyon in 2025.

Worth noting, of course, that time does not diminish Gould's unique achievements: you'd need just the two hands, at a stretch, to count the numbers of swimmers in he modern era who were genuinely capable of reaching Olympic podiums in distances from 100 to 1500. Gould was and remains one of the greats of swimming.

The closest winning spectrum to Gould's since her day is bookend-ed by Americans Shirley Babashoff and Katie Ledecky .

The London meet in April 1971 marked Gould's first World record. I was there to see it, on a day out and date with my own destiny...

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