World Record of the Year (Male): Leon Marchand Knocks Michael Phelps From Record Books

Leon Marchand of France and Michael Phelps attend the medal ceremony of the 400m Individual Medley Men Final during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 23rd, 2023.

Leon Marchand -- Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

World Record of the Year (Male): Leon Marchand Knocks Michael Phelps From Record Books

During his legendary career, 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps set world records in five individual events, and after setting the marks in four of the five events at the 2008 Olympics, he held all five concurrently for about three weeks in July 2009. The 200 freestyle record was the first to go, with Paul Biedermann taking full advantage of then-legal full-body polyurethane suits to swim a time of 1:42.00, and two days later, Ryan Lochte swam a time of 1:54.00 for a new world record in the 200 IM.

It would be 10 years before someone else broke a Phelps record, with both of his butterfly marks falling at the 2019 World Championships, the 200-meter mark to Kristof Milak and the 100 going to fellow American Caeleb Dressel. That left the 400 IM, with the mark of 4:03.84 untouched since Phelps won his first of eight gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. In fact, almost 14 years passed before anyone else swam in the 4:04-range.

In order to break the mark, a special swimmer would require near-perfect preparation. Well, that’s what happened when France’s Leon Marchand moved to Tempe, Ariz., to join the Arizona State University swimming program and train under Phelps’ longtime coach, Bob Bowman. After just one year in Tempe, Marchand posed the first real challenge to the record in a decade.

In the 2022 World Championships final, Marchand trailed slightly at the halfway point, but he split 1:07.28 on breaststroke to move under world-record pace by more than a second. He was not ready to match Phelps’ freestyle split, but he came in at 4:04.28 for the second-quickest mark ever.

The stage was set for the 2023 global meet in Fukuoka, Japan, and Marchand was ready. From the start, the 21-year-old Frenchman was aggressive, going out in 54.66 on butterfly, slightly faster than Phelps’ pace, and although he was just off the WR split at the halfway point, Marchand was two seconds quicker than he had been at the same point one year earlier, and he was already ahead of the field, including American Carson Foster, with his transcendent breaststroke to come.

Marchand was actually slightly slower on his breaststroke than in 2022, splitting 1:07.64, but the mark was still far ahead of anyone else in the field or anyone else in history. He turned in 3:04.28, a whopping 2.77 seconds quicker than Phelps’ 300-meter split of 3:07.05. Thus, the final 100 meters were a victory lap for Marchand, who skated further ahead of the field while the superimposed world-record line was not getting much closer.

Marchand finished in 4:02.50, and the last Phelps record was gone, demolished by one-and-one-third seconds. Those who had followed Marchand’s preparation, including his historic NCAA season in 2023, knew that such an achievement was possible, but it was no less surreal to watch him claim his spot among history’s individual medley greats. Phelps, meanwhile, was on hand in Fukuoka, providing guest commentary on NBC Sports’ presentation of the race before presenting Marchand with his much-deserved gold medal.

Later on in the week, Marchand would add world titles in the 200 butterfly and 200 IM, but neither could match the magnificence of shattering a Phelps record on the meet’s opening day.

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Frank A Wilson

3 months ago

The picture says it all! It is also good that Michael and Leon are friends and have the same coach in Bob Bowman! As Michael say Bob Bowman knows a trick or two about IM!