Frenchman Léon Marchand smashed Michael Phelps’ world record in the 400m medley with a time of 4 min 2 sec 50/100 by winning the world title in Fukuoka, Japan, on Sunday.
Frenchman Léon Marchand smashed Michael Phelps’ world record in the 400m medley with a time of 4 min 2 sec 50/100 by winning the world title in Fukuoka, Japan, on Sunday.
By obtaining a second planetary title over the distance, the 21-year-old swimmer broke the last individual world record still in force by American legend Michael Phelps by one and three tenths.
“I train every day for this”
Under the eyes of the man with 23 Olympic titles, present for the American television channel NBC, Léon Marchand has gradually widened the gap on his main competitor, the American Carson Forster, who once again takes second place, a year after the Budapest Worlds.
The Toulouse swimmer fits perfectly into these world championships, where he will try to do the double in the 200m medley on Thursday, like last year. “It’s excellent, I train every day for that,” savored Marchand after the race. “There I break my time by two seconds, I make the record so it’s great,” he added.
“The best is yet to come,” said the student of coach Bob Bowman, the illustrious coach of Michael Phelps.