Leon Marchand Confirms He Won’t Swim the 200 Breaststroke (In Spite of No Scratch)

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

French swimmer Leon Marchand, fresh off a historic World Record in the 400 IM and a gold medal and French Record in the 200 fly, will skip the 200 breaststroke on Thursday in Fukuoka.

Marchand had already teased that he would skip the race after swimming it at the French National Championships. That’s because the semi-finals of the 200 breast on Thursday is scheduled just 10 minutes before the final of the 200 IM, where Marchand is favored to win a third gold medal of the meet.

While Marchand didn’t scratch the race, meaning that there will be a middle lane empty in heat 4 of the prelims, on Wednesday he did confirm the decision not to swim the race.

He was due to be the 2nd seed after his 2:06.59 from French Nationals, behind only Australian World Record holder Zac Stubblety-Cook (2:05.95). Marchand already blew away the short course yards record in the event at the NCAA Championships in March.

Conceivably, Marchand could decide to swim the event at the Olympic Games next summer. The 200 breaststroke overlaps directly with the heats, semifinals, and finals of the 200 fly, so he’ll have a big choice to make between the two races. While he is the World Champion in the 200 fly, if Hungarian Kristof Milak returns at full form, he will still be the presumed favorite for Paris.

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Beckett
1 year ago

To put it bluntly Marchand was afraid of Stubblety-Cook. Already being the world record holder in the 400IM he should have scratched the 200IM and concentrated on the race the entire swimming world wanted to see.

PFA
1 year ago

Wonder if they get through to finals if Marchand will lead off the 4×2?

Troyy
1 year ago

This was obvious when he swum the 200 IM.

ERNESTO C
1 year ago

Good topic, Leon has excellent shape now, in the way that he won 400 IM is too difficult think he is going to lose
200 IM. Swimming 200 Breast semis there is a risk to lose the gold medal.
Right now, we can speculate about if he is the best swimmer in 200 BR, swimming the medley events is the best of the world.
Everyone wants to see the showdown in the 200 BR, but the schedule is not appropriate.

Ragnar
1 year ago

Figured he would. Needs to focus on the 200 IM, winning one gold is better than two silvers at best.

200 Breast is incredibly tiring if you swim it FAST, he’d at no shot at 1:54 if that was right before

Breastroke fan
1 year ago

Don’t need to have Marchand to see the 200 WR being broken this week.

Qin is on a roll and if he does similar drops to what we have seen in the 50 and the 100, he will likely break it, or at the very least achieve an unprecedented sweep of the breastroke events!

jjghhkjhkjhkhjkhjkhjk
Reply to  Breastroke fan
1 year ago

He did not drop that much in the 100 nor on the 50; to break the wr he would need at least a 1.6 second drop. While not imposible is very very unlikely.

Breastroke fan
Reply to  jjghhkjhkjhkhjkhjkhjk
1 year ago

Actually if you do the maths, Qin dropped nearly 2% of his seasons best time coming into World’s on the 50.

If he drops 2% on his season best so far on the 200m, his time would be circa around 2.05 flat and we will have ourselves a new WR with some time to spare.

DirtSwimmer
1 year ago

Probably wants to go all in on trying to get Lochte’s WR, which I think still will be tough even with how well he has been swimming. Me thinks 1:54.3 in the final before slipping under it next year at home.

Greenangel
1 year ago

He talked to French journalists after the final and said
“I’m not too tired. I train every day for that. I enjoy swimming with much pleasure. I won’t swim the 200 breast. I can rest tomorrow morning. I need to sleep. I want to do a great time in the 200 IM.”
And when Marchand decides to do something…
He clearly has his eyes on the WR. I don’t say he’ll broke it but we can expect another stratospheric race.

TerrificLéon
Reply to  Greenangel
1 year ago

Agree with you, but he doesn’t said “i want to do a great time” but “a good time” : Léon Marchand is always cautious in his pre-race comments (and humble), but we can guess that his real objective is clearly to get close to or beat the world record.

TerrificLéon
Reply to  TerrificLéon
1 year ago

sorry, the exact phrase: “I want to succeed a time”. (je veux réussir un temps)

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Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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