Léon Marchand - LIVE: Little scare, the times and channels of the last races at the World Championships
Léon Marchand, hero of the Paris Olympics, is making his return to the World Swimming Championships in Singapore. Winner of the 200m individual medley and set a new world record, the Frenchman is aiming for another title in the 400m individual medley this Sunday and is also expected to be part of the relay.
This Sunday, Léon Marchand is aiming for another title in the 400m medley. The final is scheduled for shortly before 2 p.m. The Frenchman also hopes to shine again in the men's 4x100m medley relay, which won the bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The French 4x100m medley relay will be in the final this Sunday at the closing of the world championships. The race is scheduled for less than 30 minutes after the 400m medley final, but Léon Marchand still plans to participate despite his average time in the 400m medley heats (7th, qualifying for the final). "I haven't thought about all that yet. I want to do both," he told L'Equipe newspaper this morning. "After that, I don't know. Physically, it's not going to be easy. And above all, I need to focus on the 400m medley, not think about the 100m breaststroke. Once I've finished my 400, I'll think about the relay."
Léon Marchand didn't hide his disappointment after the 400m medley heats last night. "4'13 is not... At the last world championships, I swam 4'8 and 4'9 in the morning," he told L'Equipe about his time. "Yes, it worries me a little, but I have a finish for tonight. In the end, it's OK. The hundredths were on my side."
Visibly disappointed with his performance in the heats this morning, Léon Marchand then put things into perspective and emphasized that he still has every chance of making the final, even at lane number 1. "I'll only look one way. It's not a big deal, I'll try to run my race, just not look too far to the side," he explained in comments reported by L'Equipe. "It's true that it will be more difficult to control the race. I won't be able to hide, I'll have to go for it from the start."
As a result of his "bad" time in the series (7th), Léon Marchand will be at the end of the pool, lane number 1 in the 400m medley final at 2 p.m.
It will be broadcast live on France 3.
It wasn't exactly the performance expected, but Léon Marchand will be there for the 400m medley final this Sunday at midday. The Frenchman, crowned 200m medley world champion on Thursday, struggled in the heats and ultimately achieved the 7th overall time in 4'13"19, saving his place in the final by 7 tenths of a second.
No individual or relay race for Léon Marchand this Saturday at the Singapore World Championships. The Frenchman will return on Sunday for the heats and final of the 400m medley and possibly the final of the 4x100m medley relay.
No miracle for the French team in the 4x200m freestyle! In a high-level final won by the British, the French team finished 6th. Léon Marchand took the final relay, starting 7th, but was unable to make up the deficit he had gained earlier in the race.
Before the 4x200m freestyle relay, a new final awaits a blue medalist at these World Championships: Yohann Ndoye Brouard. A bronze medalist in the 100m backstroke, the Annecy native is aiming for another podium finish in the 200m backstroke, a distance in which he won the European title in 2022. You can watch the entire competition live in our dedicated World Swimming Championships live stream.
This final is scheduled for 2:39 p.m. French time. Léon Marchand will be the final French relay runner and will face his rival in the medley, the British Duncan Scott, Olympic vice-champion in the 200m medley and 4th yesterday in the final.
As expected, Léon Marchand will indeed make his debut in the blue relay for the 4x200m freestyle final. The French relay qualified without him last night with the 7th time in the heats. He will be teamed with Roman Fuchs, Yann Le Goff and Rafael Fente-Damers. Léon Marchand will be lined up as the last relay runner in the final where the Blues will be outsiders behind the British favorites, the reigning Olympic champions, Australia, the United States and China.
The French 4x200m freestyle relay will indeed be in the final of the world championships. Roman Fuchs, Rafael Fente-Damers, Corentin Pouillart, and Yann Le Goff accomplished their mission by achieving the 8th fastest time in the heats last night, clocking 7:6.88. One of them could give way to Léon Marchand in the final, scheduled for shortly after 2:30 p.m. this Friday. However, medal chances are slim in this relay.
Everything will depend on the outcome of the 4x200m freestyle relay heats, scheduled for 6 a.m. French time this Friday. Léon Marchand should be rested for a possible final scheduled for 2:39 p.m. French time. For that to happen, the blue relay team will still need to qualify for the second heat, which also includes the Australians, British, Italians, and Canadians.
Léon Marchand gave his thoughts after the podium and this new world medal, his first in this 2025 edition in Singapore.
???? #AQUASingapore25 | ???? "It's so classy. I saw him in the call room and I was like, 'What the hell is he doing here?'" ????️ Léon Marchand's reaction to Tony Parker presenting him with his gold medal. pic.twitter.com/bTNDqINL5H
Léon Marchand was born on May 17, 2002 in Toulouse and is the son of two former swimmers: Xavier Marchand, silver medalist at the 200m medley world championships in 1998, and Céline Bonnet, backstroke swimmer and medley specialist, who notably participated in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. His uncle, Christophe, is also a former Olympic swimmer, now the sports director of a swimming pool in Clichy. The young Léon has obviously been swimming in pools since he was very young, even if he had a preference for judo and rugby before embarking on his parents' footsteps, going so far as to be crowned French champion in the 200m butterfly in Rennes in 2019, making him the first French swimmer to achieve such a title at the age of 17. A few months later, he won a bronze medal in the 400m medley and the 200m breaststroke at the 2019 European Junior Championships. At the 2022 World Swimming Championships in Budapest, he left with three medals, including two gold. His biggest achievement came at the 2024 Paris Olympics, with four individual gold medals (200m medley, 400m medley, 200m butterfly, and 200m breaststroke), plus one with the French men's 4x100m medley relay.
Léon Marchand comes from a lineage of swimmers. His mother is simply Céline Bonnet, a backstroke specialist and multiple French champion. His father, Xavier Marchand, was a world vice-champion in the 200m medley in Perth, Australia, in 1998.
The French swimmer, a specialist in the 400m medley, is a big figure in the world of swimming and measures 1.83m according to the latest data from the FFN.
The day after the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where he reached his first Olympic final, finishing 6th, Léon Marchand packed his bags to join Arizona State University and a certain Bob Bowman, former mentor of a certain Michael Phelps. The young prodigy has since continued to progress and impressed the United States. He made headlines there in May 2022 when he broke the NCAA record for the 200-yard individual medley, previously held by Caeleb Dressel. A performance congratulated by... Michael Phelps on Instagram.
Beyond the results in the pool, Léon Marchand has simply evolved since leaving for the United States, as he explained to 20 minutes in June 2022. "In bodybuilding, I did more "weightlifting", more explosiveness. I am much more powerful. Mentally, I gained autonomy and a lot of experience because I swam a lot in the NCAA (the university championship in the United States). I did a lot of races, a lot of relays. In competition, I can now throw myself at the wall to win the race. I swam a lot with Bob (Bowman). I improved my backstroke, my crawl. I have more assets than before. I swim faster, quite simply." After his raid at the Paris Olympics, Léon Marchand, having turned professional, can no longer compete in NCAA competition but followed Bob Bowman's training group in Texas.
Based in the USA, Léon Marchand is working under the legendary Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps' former mentor, and is learning a lot from him. "I was very impressed at first. But he's a really great coach, with a lot of experience. I know I'll be ready for any competition with him. And he's really relaxed. He's had a lot of results, so he's cooler. We have a lot of fun training while knowing where we're going, what we want to do. There's a connection that's been created between us."
Léon Marchand won the gold medal in the 400m medley in his first race at the Paris Olympics in July 2024. The Frenchman left no chance for his opponents, finishing several seconds ahead in a race that turned into a demonstration, setting an Olympic record to boot. The Toulouse swimmer then went on to win the 200m butterfly after an epic duel with Milak before making history by winning a third title in the 200m breaststroke. The legend of Marchand didn't stop there, winning a fourth title in the 200m medley and then helping the 4x100m medley relay team to the bronze medal alongside Yohann Ndoye Brouard (backstroke), Maxime Grousset (butterfly), and Florent Manaudou (freestyle).
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