Jan Sibbersen
sailfish founder and managing director
In 1992, the talented swimmer born in Coburg, Upper Franconia, made his first international appearance. At a meeting in Stockholm, he made his breakthrough on his favorite distance, the 1,500m freestyle, with a time of under 16:00 minutes on the 50m course. This was followed by many national and international titles in the 200 - 1500m crawl. Jan swam for the German national team for a total of 10 years, even though he moved to the USA in the meantime to study economics in Miami and Harvard.
After ending his active swimming career, he gained two years of professional experience as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs in New York and Frankfurt. He then returned to his true passion, the arena of sport.
Driven by the flair and dynamism of the triathlon and the desire to enter the triathlon history books with a new world best time on the IRONMAN triathlon swim distance, Jan begins his second career as a professional triathlete.
First out of water
He quickly makes a name for himself in the triathlon scene with regular "first out of water" titles in the best long-distance competitions in the world. He spent four years training specifically for his big goal. In the decisive year, Jan works harder than ever on his swimming form. Not a day goes by without him training in the pool or open water and the effort finally pays off: he completes the swim part of the IRONMAN Germany in Frankfurt in 42:17 minutes and clearly beats the previous world best time of 44:36 minutes.
In addition to the world best time in swimming at an IRONMAN, he also won four "first out of water" titles at the IRONMAN World Championships in Hawaii.
Made to make you faster
At the end of his triathlon career, Jan founded the sailfish brand and dedicated himself to developing the fastest and most flexible wetsuits. Since then, he has been "made to make you faster".
The record falls
In 2018, almost 13 years after ending his active professional career, Jan once again put all his eggs in one basket and actually managed to break the Hawaii swim course record, which had been held by Lars Jorgensen since 1995. Since then, Jan has held the record for the fastest time ever swum at the IRONMAN in Hawaii with 46:29 minutes.
