{"id":532692,"date":"2023-07-21T03:58:19","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T10:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=532692"},"modified":"2023-07-21T03:58:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T10:58:19","slug":"leon-marchand-to-kick-off-world-championships-in-pursuit-of-michael-phelps-final-world-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/leon-marchand-to-kick-off-world-championships-in-pursuit-of-michael-phelps-final-world-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Leon Marchand to Kick Off World Championships in Pursuit of Michael Phelps’ Final World Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leon Marchand to Kick Off World Championships in World Record Pursuit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leon Marchand<\/strong> will be chasing history, and everyone inside the Marine Messe venue on Sunday evening will be aware of the situation. The last surviving Michael Phelps<\/strong> world record could go down.<\/p>\n

The swimming community has awaited this moment since last June, when Marchand turned into the final 100 meters of his 400 IM final more than one second under world-record pace. He could not match Phelps\u2019 blazing finishing freestyle speed, but Marchand still clocked a time of 4:04.28, a best time by almost five seconds and the second-fastest time in history behind Phelps\u2019 4:03.84<\/a>. In one race, Marchand jumped ahead of the likes of Ryan<\/strong> Lochte<\/strong>, Chase<\/strong> Kalisz<\/strong>, Kosuke<\/strong> Hagino<\/strong>, Daiya<\/strong> Seto<\/strong>, Laszlo<\/strong> Cseh<\/strong> and Tyler<\/strong> Clary<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s World Championships final, in which Marchand will be a heavy favorite to defend his title, comes just over a month after Phelps passed Mary T. Meagher<\/strong> for the longest tenure as world-record holder in one event. We are weeks shy of the 21st anniversary of Phelps breaking the 400 IM world record in Fort Lauderdale for the first of eight new standards he would establish in the race.<\/p>\n

Now, here comes Marchand, four months after his last taper meet where he annihilated the all-time records in three short course yards events, including a 400-yard time of 3:28.82 that sits a whopping four seconds clear of any other man in history<\/a>. Yards times hold little value internationally, and Marchand\u2019s talents are certainly well-suited to short course, but his 400-yard IM time was more than five seconds faster than he swam last year. Translation: he has improved.<\/p>\n

This year in Fukuoka, it\u2019s very possible that Marchand cannot reach Phelps\u2019 record-setting pace in three of the four strokes. And there\u2019s no shame in that: Phelps held world records in freestyle and butterfly, and at the time he swam his final medley world record, he was ranked No. 2 all-time in the 100 backstroke and No. 3 in history in the 200 back.<\/p>\n

But Marchand is among the world\u2019s best breaststrokers, and his 1:07.28 breaststroke split last year was the fastest in history by far. Kalisz, who won 2021 Olympic gold in the 400 IM largely thanks to his breaststroke split, went 1:08.45 in that race. When Phelps swam that world record at the Beijing Olympics, he had his quickest-ever breaststroke split at 1:10.56, still elite but nowhere close to Marchand.<\/p>\n

\"Leon

Leon Marchand — Photo Courtesy: KMSP\/St\u00e9phane Kempinaire<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, let\u2019s compare Phelps and Marchand in the other strokes:<\/p>\n