Germany’s Maertens Overwhelmed by Olympic 400m Freestyle Gold

AFP/APP

Paris: Germany’s Lukas Maertens expressed being “overwhelmed” on Saturday after clinching the gold medal in the men’s 400m freestyle at the Olympics. Despite his emotional response, Maertens always believed he could reach the top.

The 22-year-old was on world record pace for 350 meters at La Defense Arena but slowed in the final stretch, finishing in 3:41.78. He secured the gold ahead of Australia’s Elijah Winnington (3:42.21) and South Korea’s Kim Woo-min, the reigning world champion, who took bronze with a time of 3:42.50.

This victory marked Maertens’ first Olympic medal after his debut at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games. He admitted to being in awe when he saw the scoreboard: “I stopped, looked at the scoreboard and thought, ‘Nah, that can’t be right’.”

Maertens was a heavy favorite coming into the race, having recorded the fastest time since 2012 in April, and was over a second quicker than any other swimmer this season. Although Paul Biedermann’s world record of 3:40.07 has stood since 2009, Maertens appeared on track to break it until he ran out of steam.

Maertens acknowledged that he was aiming for the record: “Yes, but the goal was definitely a medal. If it had been bronze, it would have been OK. I was thinking about gold, and now it’s actually come true.”

He expressed that the gold medal means everything to him: “You can see my progress in performance. There are many reasons. I constantly believed in myself, training didn’t always go well, I had some setbacks, but the important thing is to learn from them and continue with the training.”