2026 PRO SWIM SERIES – AUSTIN
- January 14-17, 2026
- Austin, Texas
- Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center
- LCM (50 meters)
- Psych Sheet (updated)
- How to Watch
- Live Results
Video captured by Anya Pelshaw.
4x Olympic Gold Medalist Leon Marchand got a few dives in at the 2026 Pro Swim in his home pool in Austin this weekend. The French Olympian won the 200 Breast (2:09.72), 200 IM (1:57.65), 400 IM (4:13.21), and placed 2nd in the 200 back (1:57.90).
Marchand said that he is currently putting a big focus on backstroke and breaststroke in training, as well as his underwaters. He also said that training with the pro group that Bob Bowman has assembled in Austin has exceeded his expectations.
locked in Leon focused just on the Olympics in 2028 (don’t forget, he still did NCAAs in 24) + an actually good pool is gonna be otherwordly
Holy moly, getting a tapered 200 back from him after he focuses on it would be insane.
I wonder if he has the motivation to keep going after the golds in Paris. He reached the mountain top. Whats next?
Breast is a weakness
(Won the Olympic title 17 months ago)
I’ve noticed though his lack of consistency in Singapore in his breast splits in IM finals (200 IM 32.13 in semi vs 32.96 in final – 400 IM 2nd 50 split 34.90 vs 33.77 in 2023 world). It’s quite significant.
And in World cup in Carmel, his time of 2.02 in 200br SCM isn’t bad but far from his potential.
Here in Austin, his 200 breasstroke’ s last 100m shows that he is improving his speed in it.
He said after that World Cup race in Carmel that he’d identified several technical errors he was making and was going to try to address those. Yeah, his final 100 in this race indicates he really had been working on it. Hopefully this means we’ll see a really fast time in the 200 BR from him at Euros.
200 BR WR is going down this summer
I pretty agree with that. If he gets back to the same level that in the Olympics, I bet on a 2:04 next summer.
maybe, without moreover the double 200fly/200br from Paris 2024
Hearing that crowd scream “Allez” is burned into my brain
When I need to feel some emotions I watch the 200br or 200im finals, to hear the ‘Allez!’
Ha! I’d just said in another thread that I hope he puts focus on the 200 BR because I think he could break the WR. I hope he is serious about this. Getting “close to his PB” in that race would certainly put that WR in danger.
Should go 200 fly and 200 breast, put the IMs on the backburner this summer. Get the 200 breast and 200 fly WRs
Off topic does anyone know what the Euros schedule is? I’m actually curious now if he’d do that double or not
If it stays the same as 2024 (haven’t seen a new one), there’s no real conflict except that the 200 fly final comes 90 minutes before the 200 IM semifinal.
Given that it’s Euros…that seems very doable for him. Only took a 1:59 to final in the 200 IM in 2024.
https://www.ffnatation.fr/sites/default/files/2025-12/PROGRAMME%20CE26%20FR%20VF.pdf
Thank you for this! So maybe he does:
400 IM and 4 x 200 relay (??) on Day 1
200 Back Prelim/Semi on Day 2 (??)
200 Breast Prelim/Semi and 200 Back Final (??) on Day 3
200 Fly Prelim/Semi on Day 5
200 IM Prelim/Semi and 200 Fly on Day 6
200 IM Final and medley relay on Day 7
Imho you can remove the 200 back from the schedule. I don’t think he’ll swim it at Euros. However you can add the 400 free, the last day just before swimming the medley relay. I’m pretty sure he’ll swim the event.
Yeah but the 400 free clashes with the 200 IM
He’s not swimming the 200 back
❤️❤️❤️