Léon Marchand gives up

The first day was successful and made me want to see what happened next. For his big comeback, around two and a half months after the Olympic Games, Léon Marchand showed a very good level on Friday. Given the context, these exploits and this new notoriety which must be digested, the Frenchman could be satisfied with this victory in the 100 meter medley for his first final of the weekend in Shanghai.

“We are not yet 100% but what he is doing is already very strong, very good, indicates Nicolas Castel, one of his coaches, to L’Equipe. The accumulated work does not go away overnight, it has a healthy lifestyle. When he came back in September, he was quite athletic, he didn’t have ten extra kilos or things like that and he had a form of freshness because he had cut well, taken advantage well. »

Before the Short Course Worlds in December, Léon Marchand chose to return to Asia, where the three stages of the Swimming World Cup are being contested. Ideal for getting back into the bath.
“These three competitions will allow me to rethink my future, he explains. There, I do a little different things, I go and see the disciplines that I like a little more than others. We’ll see, I have time for that. It’s a test. »

Léon Marchand, no 100 meters for the moment

When Léon Marchand spoke of “test”, we immediately thought of the 100 meters freestyle, the distance for which he was registered for this Saturday. The crawl, clearly, looks like an area of ​​improvement for the French prodigy, a territory to explore to imagine new conquests between now and the Los Angeles Games.

But ultimately, Léon Marchand gave up on the series scheduled for this Saturday morning. The Toulouse native had just swum his 200 meter medley, where he set the best time (1’53″53), ahead of the Briton Duncan Scott (1’53″89). The final is scheduled for 1:16 p.m. French time.