French swimming star Léon Marchand, eagerly awaited at the Paris Olympic Games in two months, completed three days of competition with a personal best in the 100m backstroke during the “Speedo Grand Challenge”. Marchand took second place in the 100m backstroke in 54’55, much faster than his record of 55’32 achieved last October, in a discipline in which he rarely competes. He was largely beaten by the Hungarian Hubert Kos (53’81), reigning world champion in the 200m backstroke.
A new breaststroke record
Just over two weeks before the French Championships in Chartres (June 11-16), obligatory passage on the Olympic road, Marchand (22 years old) showed interesting form during the three days of competition.
On Saturday, he won the 100m butterfly in 52’56, very close to his personal best (52’42). On Friday, he hit hard with a success in 59 sec 06 in the 100m breaststroke, a world-class time almost two seconds faster than his reference time for the 2023 French Championships (1 min 01’02).
A disqualification
The Toulouse exiled in Arizona then crushed the 200m medley, one of his specialties, in 1 min 55 sec 74, his third best time after those established during his two world titles in the discipline in 2022 and 2023.
The only downside was that Marchand was disqualified on Sunday from the 100m freestyle for too long a swim, after being flashed in 50’43, his record again in a race he rarely competes in.
Last year, Marchand dazzled the Fukuoka World Championships with three titles (200 and 400 m medley, 200 m butterfly), along with the world record for the 400 m medley, which until then belonged to the legend Michael Phelps.
