2023-06-14 17:16:53
At the French swimming championships taking place this week in Rennes, swimmer Léon Marchand won the 200m breaststroke and freestyle then a third title on Tuesday June 13 in the 200m butterfly.
Léon Marchand, aged 21, stands out as the specialist in the medley, breaststroke and butterfly events. A young prodigy, he has been setting records since 2019 until his coronation in 2022 as world champion in the 400m and 200m medley and vice-world champion in the 200m butterfly.
The rising star of French swimming was born in Toulouse on May 17, 2002, into a family of swimmers. His two parents, Xavier Marchand and Christine Bonnet, are themselves Olympic swimming champions.
In parallel with his high school at the end of which he obtained a scientific baccalaureate with honors and his computer studies in Toulouse, Léon Marchand was trained by Nicolas Castel within the Dauphins du Toec club.
An Olympic form
From the age of 16, he won several competitions. During the French swimming championships in April 2019, he was crowned champion in the 200m butterfly and won the bronze medal in the 200m medley.
In 2021, again during the French championships, he broke his own French record in the 400m medley, in 4 min 9 s 65, the second world performance of the year. Times that allow him to participate in the Tokyo Olympics. However, he stopped in the semi-final for the 200m butterfly and obtained sixth place in the final of the 400m medley.
Exiled to the United States
The young swimmer has lived in the United States since 2022, on the campus of Arizona State University. There, he is coached by Bob Bowman, the ex-coach of Michael Phelps, his idol.
He then broke new records. In June 2022, he won the world championship in the 400m medley at the World Championships in Budapest and set a French and European record (4 min 4 s 28). It is the second best performance in the world of all time, less than half a second behind Michael Phelps’ record at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
The tricolor prodigy continues to train. He had entrusted the Monde last year having learned through competitions at “better manage stress and be more mature”.
” Beat Records “
In the spring, he participated in the NCAA, the American university championships, in Westmont (Illinois), swimming under the colors of the University of Arizona. Again, it does not go unnoticed. He signed the best world performance of the year in the 200m medley. He panics the counters for the 200 yards breaststroke (about 180 m) which he performs in 1 min 46 s 91. A historic record.
“Breaking records in all races is crazy. I am really very, very happy to be in this team (academic), had assured the French swimmer, who had become the most successful swimmer at his university, at theParisianafter his run. We build something special and we progress every year. »
The next steps ? The swimming world championships this summer in Fukuoka, Japan and of course the Paris Olympics in 2024, which he has his eyes on.
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