2026 FRENCH ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, June 27th – Thursday, July 2nd
- Piscine Raymond Sommet, Saint-Etienne, France
- LCM (50m)
- French Selection Criteria for European Championships
- Meet Central
- Event Schedule
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- SwimSwam Meet Preview
- SwimSwam Recaps
French superstar swimmer Leon Marchand felt pain in his hip adductor during prelims of the 200 breaststroke on Monday at the French National Championships, according to National Technical Director Denis Auguin.
The hip adductor is a group of muscles used primarily in bringing the thighs together. In breaststroke, this will most often flare in the insweep at the end of the kick.
The tweak caused him to shut his race down, cruising to a 2:16.16, which put him in 9th place and out of the 8 swimmer final.
Auguin says that Marchand is receiving treatment and that they are awaiting more information about the severity of the injury and what it means for the rest of his meet.
Marchand is the defending Olympic Champion in the 200 breast, along with the European and Olympic Record holder.
Marchand opened his race in 1:02.40, about a second-and-a-half better than the field, but his final 50 meter split of 38.70 was among the slowest in the event.
Earlier in the meet, Marchand swam 4:04.56 in the 400 IM, the 5th-best performance in history and one he called a “surprise.” He then had a day off before Monday’s 200 breaststroke, where he was in cruise control early.
Marchand still had a chance at swimming in the A-Final after a scratch from the 5th qualifier Carl Aitkaci, but Marchand later withdrew from the race anyway to take caution with the injury.
The top qualifier is Lucien Vergnes in 2:12.23.
In mid-April, Marchand’s American coach Bob Bowman said that he hadn’t been training much breaststroke, but that his technique remained solid. At the Pro Swim Series in Westmont in early March, he swam 2:10.06 in the 200 breast, followed by a 2:09.04 at the Ft. Lauderdale Open in early May.
Marchand is still scheduled to swim the 200 fly, 200 free, and 400 free later in the meet, pending the status of his injury. Because he is already confirmed to the team in the 400 IM, French selection criteria allows him to opt in to additional races if there are not already four qualifiers from the French National Championships – which is unlikely based on the time standards:
- 200 breast – 2:10.32
- 200 fly – 1:56.51
- 200 free – 1:46.88
- 400 free – 3:47.69
DNS today over 200 free.
Out for the entire competition.
He said that or are you just guessing?
Official statement made by the French Federation.
Will he be good for the free and fly events?
It’s so over for Leon. Maximus and Thomas are ready to fill his void.
Safe to say Gretchen and Kate will be the 2 best swimmers this year across all genders this year. All that’s left is for Summer McIntosh to underwhelm in a couple weeks!
Why is UVA fan so insufferable?
If you’ve lived in Virginia you’d realize this isn’t abnormal for them
I’m convinced that you lay awake at night and think about how you can best anger / baffle SwimSwam the following day.
You remind me of SCOTUS.
Who is Maximus and Thomas?
These adductor strains can be a real nag on your back. I’ve had and still have one for years. I’m no breaststroker (I’m no anything for that matter) so I manage, but it still stings when I push harder on breast.
At 24, sometimes the body starts to break down due to aging and wear.
Bro thinks 24 is old
Right, when you see the paint chip in the house you better burn that mother down, right?
I dare you to tell that to Sjõström.
Well let’s see what some Pilates will do for Leon!
He might benefit from it tbh
Rest up. We got bigger fish to fry.
-Hook EM
Blud graduated from ASU
Followed the GOAT to the best university on the planet.
-Hook EM
Bob Bumman aint the goat. He dont make the athlete great. His athletes make him great.
Yikes, hope this just needs some rest, and he’ll be fine otherwise. I heard him say in an interview that he wouldn’t do both events on the final day, and would pick one. Just pick the 400 Free and avoid breaststroke for the time being. Crossing my fingers.
Curious as to why he wouldn’t be training much breaststroke lately?
Bob is heavy on the distance fr and fly combo clearly w some back for backstrokers. I doubt they do much pure br practices it’s always a mix of IM. Hence injuries
Hopefully the breastrokers can get some more breast work in. I’d hate to see this happen to Jack, Campbell or Nate
Funny you say that, Campbell just put up a video where he’s swimming breaststroke against Germonprez and Mladenovic at the start
Ooop gotta watch that
One of Bob’s big staples for IM training is that you spend a lot of time training the strokes individually. More of their full IM swimming in practice is saved for higher intensities and meet prep. You can find talks from conventions or podcasts where he discusses this.
Ok and Jack Kelly was literally doing the fly set with Regan, Summer, shaine, etc… no point for that guy to be training that much fly and free when he’s a breaststroker and does not compete other strokes at meets.
I just hope there’s more individual training there, doesn’t sound like it to me, but could be wrong…
You’re a know-it-all, but usually wrong 😛
And you’re always right huh Bobby
yooooo I was messing with you. I copied your exact comment to me from the article last month
On a more serious note I just hope Bob doesn’t F up Luka..
You’re gonna have to start typing out his name. I know who you’re talking about but what if some Austrian fan is here and is like “huh?!”
Mijatovic…..
Not trolling at all.
… isn’t it time for your walk.
Just 6.5k total today. You?
I KNOW you are very knowledgeable about Swimming. But being a DICK to certain / several people here will not be tolerated by me, and I will point it out whenever I see it.
Cheers.
Whoever this guy is has been that way for a while towards many different people. Used to it
this is what I get for trying to be the one person nice to you…
Nice to me?
Did I misread several recent posts?