Almost each of his dives in the pools is punctuated by a new record. After having erased, on Thursday October 31 in Singapore, the European mark for the 100 m medley held by the Russian Vladimir Morozov, Léon Marchand, the next day, dynamited by almost a second the world record for the 200 m medley of the American Ryan Lochte, as part of the third stage of the Short Course World Cup (25m).
After having won the French and European record for this distance in 1 m 50 s 30 in Shanghai in mid-October, the French swimmer improved his time by more than a second to establish a new world record in 1 m 48 s 88.
In the Singapore swimming pool, Léon Marchand became the first swimmer to go below 1m49 in the 200m medley, crushing the mark set in 2012 by Ryan Lochte in 1m49.63.
“I gave everything I had into the water”
“It was very exciting for me, I tried to do something that had never been done before, so I gave everything I had in the water. The crowd really pushed me, it reminded me of the Games”declared the Toulouse resident by the pool.
Three months after a dream Olympic Games, the four-time Olympic champion will end his Asian tour with the 400m medley on Saturday, and the ambition of winning a third hat-trick in medley, after those gleaned in Shanghai and Incheon (South Korea) . Léon Marchand's season will then continue in Budapest, for the short course world championships from December 10 to 15, where he will once again be the star of the pools.
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