2023 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 22-25, 2023
- Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center | Minneapolis, MN
- SCY (25 yards)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- SwimSwam Pick ’em Contest
- Live Results
We are giving it our best at explaining Leon Marchand‘s 3:28.82 400 IM… but to be honest, it’s hard to put into words. He dropped 2.5 seconds, becoming the first man to go 3:31, 3:30, 3:29, and 3:28 all in 3 months (and the last 3 of those all in 3.5 minutes). This weekend, the man can do no wrong.
This is a fantastic analysis!
Crazy to watch his walls…. in a freaking 400IM.
I remember a certain 100 and 200 flyer, some 30 years back who liked to push the boundaries of underwaters. What was his name again?
Definitely.
My hunch is that Marchand has done such a number on Carson Foster’s head that next year Kalisz and Litherland make the US Oly team in the 400 IM.
(Carson will make it in the 200 IM.)
MA will make it in the 2IM and then come 6th in the final.
I see this changing the 400IM and 500 over the next years. Coaches of these distances don’t emphasize underwaters much and athletes typically don’t train to hit more than 5 kicks. We just recently started seeing 200 free athletes kick past mid pool and now this guy is doing it for a 400IM??? Longer racing with breath holding is a territory un-explored in not only swimming but any sport and it goes against every mammalian instinct to train and compete in that manner.
Taking this to its extreme I could see this shaping the kind of athletes we see breaking records in the future. A 500 freestyler that kicks off the wall to 15 each wall has to be… Read more »
Wonder how much of it was developed by Bowman and how much of it was trained in France.
who else had amazing underwaters in the 400 IM?
phelps
I think that bob has helped him a lot
Or, he is just a freak of nature, with natural physical gifts that only he has. I do agree with the idea that walls have now become an additional training need for middle distance types.
i remember kelsi dhalia kicking out to 15m after every turn in her 200 fly scy races.
she was good, dont get me wrong, but she didnt really make up any ground on the underwaters nor did it seem to give her more strenght for the swimming portion.
so yea, i dont think we’ll see a big change in this regard bc i don think it makes the majority of swimmers faster
Where’s the “regular” media coverage? THIS is ridiculously newsworthy to all you head in the sand reporters!
Just curious if you have any analytics on how many times 3:28 has been put into the swimswam time converter in the past 24 hrs?
Ha, no. We don’t keep data on individual queries, but it is a fascinating question.
Analysis: it was f-ing nuts.