Swimming: Léon Marchand beaten in the 200m medley, world records for Katie Ledecky and Gretchen Walsh

Léon Marchand, present among other stars in Florida, is testing his crawl as he returns after several months of absence.

For Léon Marchand, the results aren't there, but the important thing was elsewhere. The four-time Olympic champion returned to competition this weekend in Florida , at the Tyr Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale, after almost six months of absence, and injuries to his shoulder and rib in recent months. He finished his competition, Saturday, May 3, with a second place in the 200m medley, the discipline in which he won gold in Paris, behind his training partner Shaine Casas.

Léon Marchand had decided, a few hours earlier, to remove the 200m breaststroke from his program to focus on this race, which he swam in 1'57"27, being overtaken in the last 50m crawl by the American, winner in 1'56"52. It is on this stroke that the Frenchman is concentrating his efforts to improve. To change his routine and test himself for the Los Angeles 2028 Games, he had also taken 3rd place in the 400m freestyle on Thursday, and had suffered in the 200m freestyle on Friday, with an eighth place in the final. He was also beaten by Bobby Finke in the 400m medley, his favorite distance.

But no worries for Bob Bowman, his coach. "He wants to do different things, he had fun, he didn't swim too badly ," he commented in the mixed zone on Friday. "The 400? It was OK, he gave it his all and the times are pretty good, despite some huge technical errors that need to be corrected. His turns were horrible. He's not competitive at the highest level yet, but it's good for him to try things out."

The Frenchman was among the big names in swimming at the Florida competition. American swimming star Katie Ledecky, a nine-time Olympic champion, improved her 800m freestyle world record by swimming 8:04.12, compared to 8:04.79 at the 2016 Rio Games. This is Ledecky's first long-course world record since 2018. She also holds the record for the 1,500m freestyle (15:20.48 in 2018).

Her compatriot Gretchen Walsh twice improved her 100m butterfly world record. In the morning, the Olympic runner-up swam a time of 55.09 seconds in the heats, setting a new record, before comfortably beating that time in the afternoon final with a time of 54.60 seconds, ahead of Olympic champion Torri Huske.