Leon Marchand: Mastering Breaststroke and Butterfly

Frenchman Leon Marchand had an unforgettable 2023, with the highlight of his year coming at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka where he won three individual events and set the world record in the men’s 400 IM, surpassing Michael Phelps‘ 15-year-old previous standard. Furthermore, he also had an excellent college season in the United States, setting numerous records and delivering eye-popping performances.

Having won the 200 butterfly, the 200 and the 400 IM at the World Championships, Marchand certainly showed his versatility. But another feat that he achieved in 2023, and which has not been talked about as much, also deserves to be highlighted.

During the French National Championships in May, in Rennes, he won the 200 breaststroke and qualified to swim the event at the World Championships. However, in Fukuoka, he dropped out of the race due to a scheduling conflict.

But what caught attention was his time of 2:06.59. The performance represented a new French record and makes him the 5th fastest performer of all-time. At the time, his coach Bob Bowman declared about Marchand: “He hasn’t shaved and he’s about 50% prepared.” Which makes sense, as he was far from his personal best times in other events. It would’ve been very interesting to see him race the 200 breaststroke in Fukuoka, with newly-minted world record holder Qin Haiyang winning gold in 2:05.48, just over one second faster than Marchand.

Either way, Marchand’s feat was spectacular on its own. After all, he finished 2023 ranked third in the world behind Qin and Australian Zac Stubblety-Cook. He also topped the world rankings in the 200 fly. Having such impressive results in breaststroke and butterfly events is extremely rare in swimming. This is puzzling to a degree since these two strokes are highly bounded from the beginning: butterfly evolved from an effort to swim faster breaststroke during the 1930s.

A very rare feat

To give you an idea of how rare the breast/fly skill set is, no single swimmer in Olympic history has ever won medals in breaststroke and butterfly events. In fact, only one swimmer has managed to reach the final in both strokes: United States’ Mary Sears, who in 1956 was the bronze medalist in women’s 100 fly and took 7th in the 200 breast.

At the 1978 World Championships, the legendary Tracy Caulkins, one of the most versatile swimmers in history, won the gold medal in the 200 fly and added a silver in the 100 breast. The only other swimmer to have won medals in breaststroke and butterfly events at Worlds was fellow American Lynn Colella, who took bronze in both the 200 breast and the 200 fly in 1973.

In fact, since the 1970s, the only swimmer to have results comparable to Marchand’s in breaststroke and butterfly in terms of world rankings is Caulkins. She became the fastest in the world in the 200 fly in 1978 when she broke the world record, and in 1981 she finished the year as the second-fastest swimmer in the 200 breast. No wonder: she is the only swimmer in history to hold American records in all strokes.

Swimmers who have been ranked top 10 in the world in both breaststroke and butterfly since the 1970s (long course meters) – Best Ranking of Each Swimmer:

Michael Andrew, a specialist in sprint events, has also been very well-ranked in both styles. He ranked third in the world in the 100 breast in 2021 and in the 50 fly in 2023. In 2018, he was third in the 50 breast and fourth in the 50 fly. In fact, it is not uncommon for sprint swimmers to achieve impressive times in the two 50-meter events, especially among men – as they are events that demand power and strength. We can cite, as an example, French Florent Manaudou, Russian Vladimir Morozov, Ukrainian Oleg Lisogor and Russian Oleg Kostin.

Kate Douglass ranked third in the world in the women’s 200 breast in 2022 and fourth in the 100 fly in 2023. She should move up those rankings in the near future, as in 2024, she has already improved her time in the 200 breast having cracked the 2:20 for the first time.

Another impressive record is that of Kristine Quance-Julian, who reached #5 in the world rankings in the 200 breast in 1991, and #2 in the 200 fly in 1997. She is the only swimmer in history to win medals in breaststroke and butterfly events at the Pan Pacific Championships.

But, as we can see, among the highly technical 200-meter events, Marchand’s achievement is spectacular. Only comparable to the achievements of the great Tracy Caulkins. He could have become, in Fukuoka, the first man to win medals in the breaststroke and butterfly events, and he only held off due to a scheduling conflict. At the Paris Olympics, the two events will be contested in the same session, but the new altered schedule might allow for him to swim both.

Will he try to become the first swimmer in history to reach the podium in both strokes?