Marchand Record Mania to Continue? Frenchman Sets Sights on Short Course Meters
World records in short course meters swimming often lack the credibility of their long course counterparts, largely because of elite swimmers eschewing opportunities to race in the 25-meter course. European swimmers typically contest plenty of short course meters meets in the fall, but swimmers from the United States hardly ever do; Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky, widely considered the two best swimmers ever for their respective genders, have each raced in less than five meets in the format in their entire careers.
Confused why a particular world record has lasted so long? It’s probably because many of the main global players in the event have totally sat out the last few years of international SCM competitions.
That will change this fall as Olympic medalists relieved of pressure to focus on long-course swimming turn their attention to the upcoming World Cup series and December’s Short Course World Championships in Budapest. A world record onslaught could be incoming, with one of the swimmers best suited to short course leading the way.
The world saw at the Paris Games just how much talent Leon Marchand has, with Marchand storming to gold in four individual events. But before that, his three-year NCAA career at Arizona State University proved definitively that he’s even better in short course. Of course, the college competition was in yards, but expect those results to carry over to the slightly-longer format preferred internationally.
Leon Marchand — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
For instance, compare Marchand’s record-setting swims in the 400 IM in 2023. At the World Championships in July, he broke Phelps’ long course world record with a time of 4:02.50 while defeating silver-medal-winning American Carson Foster by four seconds. But when Marchand had clocked his insane time of 3:28.82 in the yards equivalent event earlier that year, Foster had finished more than seven seconds back.
Marchand finished his college years with the fastest times ever in yards in both individual medley events, the 200 breaststroke and 500 freestyle. He contested the latter event at a championship meet for the first time during the 2023-24 college season, and he blasted the existing quickest mark ever by four seconds. Kieran Smith won freestyle medals at both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, but Marchand made Smith’s previous top time look silly.
With the Sun Devils, Marchand also swam the fastest 100-yard breaststroke split ever, and he was the first man ever under 1:29 in the 200-yard free, although he would lose the all-time record two days later when Luke Hobson swam two tenths faster in the individual event. The 200 fly record survived, largely because Marchand never raced it at the NCAA Championships.
The 22-year-old Frenchman lacks the physical advantage of many competitors, but he deploys underwater dolphin kicks an extent never before seen in the sport. Swimmers kick out to the maximum 15 meters with regularity in events like the 100 fly and 100 back. In the 400 IM and mid-distance freestyle, though? Never — until Marchand.
Well, he’s heading to short course meters now, a slate of racing at World Cup meets and Short Course Worlds giving him plenty of chances to target world records. Expect him to snatch them up, even without his usual grueling training regimen in the months after the Olympics.
Compare Marchand’s times from the Olympics to the existing world records in his four main events using Swimming World’s time conversion tool. Yes, course-to-course conversions are an inexact science, but they could provide a rough estimate for what Marchand could do in SCM.
- 400 IM: 4:02.95 to 3:51.65
- 200 Butterfly: 1:51.21 to 1:47.91
- 200 Breaststroke: 2:05.95 to 2:02.45
- 200 IM: 1:54.06 to 1:45.96
Based on this simple analysis, the records in the 200-meter stroke races might be tricky for Marchand: Kirill Prigoda owns the 200 breaststroke mark at 2:00.16 while Tomoru Honda clocked 1:46.85 in the 200 fly. The medley records, though? Gone. Daiya Seto, the winner of six consecutive short course world titles in the 400 IM, owns that record at 3:54.81 while the 200 IM mark has belonged to Ryan Lochte at 1:49.63 from 2012.
Looking for another indicator of Marchand’s meters potential? How about converting his best times from short course yards:
- 200 IM: 1:36.34 to 1:47.03
- 400 IM: 3:28.82 to 3:51.99
- 500 Freestyle: 4:02.31 to 3:32.73
- 200 Freestyle: 1:28.97 to 1:38.58
- 200 Breaststroke: 1:46.35 to 1:58.04
Leon Marchand — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Once again, those IM records will surely be crushed before the calendar flips to 2025. But his 500 free records indicates he could challenge the 400-meter free mark of 3:32.25 set by Yannick Agnel in 2012. In the 200 free, could Marchand be the man to break Paul Biedermann’s supersuit-era world record of 1:39.37, which has lasted since 2009? And if the yards conversion is accurate, the first-ever sub-2:00 200 breaststroke is incoming.
Not enough? Marchand posted a 100-yard breast split of 48.73 on Arizona State’s 400 medley relay last year, and that converts to 54.06. Sure, that’s from a relay exchange, but it’s more than a full second quicker than Ilya Shymanovich’s world record in the 100-meter race (55.28). We have to assume Marchand will take a shot at the 100 IM world record, currently belonging to Caeleb Dressel at 47.78.
All three medley events, the 200 fly, 100 and 200 breast, 200 and 400 free: that’s eight events in which Marchand has a chance to take down world records. For reference, there are individual marks kept in 18 events in short course meters, so if all goes to perfection over the next two-and-a-half months, Marchand could end up with nearly half of them. He will certainly end up with the records in the 200 and 400 IM and likely more.
Achieving all eight, though, would be one of the greatest achievements in swimming history. But when has that ever stopped Marchand? He has already done that twice this year.