Leon Marchand broke the world record in the men’s 200-metre individual medley on Wednesday night at the swimming world championships in Singapore, clocking one minute, 52.69 seconds to surpass the 1:54.00 set in 2011 by American Ryan Lochte.
The Frenchman set the mark swimming in the semi-finals and, in theory, could break it again in Thursday night’s final.
Marchand won four Olympic gold medals a year ago in Paris, but he’s swimming only the 200m and 400m individual medleys, and relays, in Singapore.
READ MORE: O’Callaghan matches Hackett, closes on Thorpe with golden swim
READ MORE: Investigation launched after illness ruins Aussie’s gold-medal shot
READ MORE: Latest twist to controversial GWS party as pub faces penalty
Planning the lighter schedule in what he calls a “transition year” keeps him fresh to chase the world marks.
Marchand didn’t just break the 14-year-old record — he annihilated it.
“What’s crazy is that it’s a whole second — and it’s still hard to believe,” Marchand said.
“1:52 on the 200 metres — that’s insane.”
Watch the World Aquatics Championships live and free on Nine and 9Now.
Leon Marchand celebrates his obliteration of the men’s 200m individual medley world record … in a semi-final. Getty
Marchand left the swimming world mind-blown, Nine’s commentators included.
“It’s a world record like none we’ve ever seen!” Mat Thompson said.
“Wow,” Ian Thorpe said.
“That is unbelievable,” added Ariarne Titmus.
Marchand will swim the 400m IM on Sunday, the final day of the world championships.
He holds that record having posted 4:02.50 at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka. And it seems likely to go.
“Today I felt really good before the race,” he said. “In the water, I felt light, I was taking in a lot of water and technically everything felt clean.”
Asked about swimming a lighter schedule he replied in an understatement: “It was probably the right decision.”
Marchand was about 1.8 seconds under the world record after 150 metres and powered home with the final freestyle leg.
Though this race did not yield a world title — that will come on Thursday night in the final — it did win Marchand a check for $30,000 (A$46,000).
“In the end I went out hard from the start,” he said.
“But I stayed super-relaxed. I didn’t make many mistakes. I didn’t realise I was going that fast but I gave it absolutely everything. Arms at full speed all the way to the wall. At that point I wasn’t even thinking about technique anymore.”
