The young Frenchman Léon Marchand, 20, became world champion in the 400m medley on Saturday on the first day of the World Swimming Championships in Budapest, beating his French record by more than four seconds. He even signed the second best world performance of all time.
The young Frenchman Léon Marchand, 20, became world swimming champion in the 400m medley on Saturday in Budapest, signing the second best performance in the world of all time and beating his French record by more than four seconds.
Marchand won after a perfect race in 4 minutes 4 seconds and 28 hundredths, a new European record and second best performance in the world behind Michael Phelps’ world record, which still stands. On the first day of the Worlds, the Frenchman is ahead of the two Americans Carson Foster, 20 like him, and the “veteran” Chase Kalisz, 28, Olympic champion in Tokyo last summer.
First gold medal for Marchand
Marchand, a new sensation in French swimming, had already achieved the best time in the semi-finals in 4:09:09, a new French record. He smashed that mark by nearly five seconds and finished two seconds ahead of Foster (4:06.56) and three ahead of Kalisz (4:07.47).
This is the first gold medal for the young man who trains at the University of Arizona under Bob Bowman, Phelps’ ex-coach. Her strength is the breaststroke, which allowed her to outrun Foster after getting off to a good start. He then resisted well on the butterfly and especially the back, supposed to be his weak point. This was absolutely not seen this Saturday.