The final update, having already looked at the 400 IM add-ups for men and women and the 800 IM add-up for women so far, sees us look at the men’s 800 IM add-ups.
The race for top spot is much tighter than on the women’s side, with just two-tenths of a second separating Michael Phelps and Leon Marchand here. It is the former who takes it, with big advantages in back and free just making up for Marchand’s 5.55 second advantage on breast. Phelps was no slouch in that discipline though – his 2:11.30 ranks him just outside the top-200 all-time.
It would be ill-advised to expect the American to be on top for long however. Leon Marchand swam 3:44.70 in the 400 free at the U.S. Open a month ago, which should correspond to a far faster 200 free time than the 1:46.44 he posted two and a half years ago.
Behind those two is a huge gap, with Carson Foster nearly nine seconds back in third – a gap of 1.8%. He beats out Laszlo Cseh for the final podium spot by a single hundredth, with the two separated by less than a second in all four 200s. Daiya Seto joins them under 7:50.00, albeit with a far faster breaststroke of 2:09.88, second-fastest of anyone in the top-20.
Chad le Clos just misses the top ten despite a 2:20.83 200 breaststroke, as his 1:52-point speed on fly and 1:45-point speed on free make up for it. That is the slowest breaststroke swim of anyone on the list by three seconds.
Every swimmer on this list is an elite 400 IM swimmer. The slowest, Jeremy Desplanches, has a best of 4:12.86 in the event, and only four swimmers here rank outside the top-50 in history – those are Seliskar (4:16.51), Hubert Kos (4:13.50), Desplanches (4:12.86), and Chad le Clos (4:12.24).
Thiago Pereira looks to have made his way onto the list via the most egalitarian route, with no true elite time among the four disciplines. He was a consistent finalist in the IM in the late 200s and early 2010s, winning Olympic silver at the London 2012 Games.
William Petric could be one to watch moving up. He set three of his best times (free, back, fly) last year, more than anyone else did.
A massive 35% of swimmers on the list are from the U.S., with no other country putting more than two into the top-20. There are 22 seconds between 1st and 2oth, albeit nine second of that gap come between Marchand/Phelps and everyone else.
In total, half of the top 20 swimmers from the 400 IM add-up make the list here as well. Eight of those are world or Olympic medalists in the 200 IM or 400 IM – Andrew Seliskar is the odd man out, coming in 17th here after being 15th in the shorter distances. He never swam an individual IM event at a World Championships or Olympic Games for the U.S..
If you find a swimmer who is fast enough to have made the top 20 but is missing, let us know in the comments below.
MEN’S TOP 20 – 800 IM ADD-UP
| Rank | Swimmer | Fly | Back | Breast | Free | Total |
| 1 | Michael Phelps | 1:51.51 | 1:54.65 | 2:11.30 | 1:42.96 | 7:40.42 |
| 2 | Leon Marchand | 1:51.21 | 1:57.14 | 2:05.85 | 1:46.44 | 7:40.64 |
| 3 | Carson Foster | 1:53.67 | 1:55.86 | 2:14.31 | 1:45.45 | 7:49.29 |
| 4 | Laszlo Cseh | 1:52.70 | 1:56.69 | 2:14.13 | 1:45.78 | 7:49.30 |
| 5 | Daiya Seto | 1:52.53 | 1:59.50 | 2:09.88 | 1:47.71 | 7:49.62 |
| 6 | Tyler Clary | 1:53.64 | 1:53.41 | 2:15.43 | 1:47.66 | 7:50.14 |
| 7 | Kosuke Hagino | 1:58.69 | 1:54.23 | 2:13.81 | 1:45.23 | 7:51.96 |
| 8 | Thiago Pereira | 1:58.27 | 1:57.19 | 2:10.79 | 1:46.57 | 7:52.82 |
| 9 | Chase Kalisz | 1:54.79 | 1:59.69 | 2:09.90 | 1:49.98 | 7:54.36 |
| 10 | Lewis Clareburt | 1:55.24 | 1:58.79 | 2:14.10 | 1:47.18 | 7:55.31 |
| 11 | Chad Le Clos | 1:52.96 | 1:57.81 | 2:20.83 | 1:45.20 | 7:56.80 |
| 12 | William Petric | 1:57.94 | 2:00.72 | 2:12.51 | 1:47.00 | 7:58.17 |
| 13 | Ryan Lochte | 2:01.19 | 1:52.96 | 2:19.82 | 1:44.44 | 7:58.41 |
| 14 | David Verraszto | 1:56.97 | 1:59.90 | 2:12.36 | 1:49.64 | 7:58.87 |
| 15 | Shun Wang | 1:56.70 | 1:58.68 | 2:17.84 | 1:45.71 | 7:58.93 |
| 16 | Hubert Kos | 1:56.01 | 1:53.19 | 2:20.70 | 1:49.61 | 7:59.51 |
| 17 | Andrew Seliskar | 1:55.92 | 2:05.15 | 2:12.82 | 1:45.70 | 7:59.59 |
| 18 | Jeremy Desplanches | 2:00.61 | 1:57.58 | 2:11.81 | 1:49.62 | 7:59.62 |
| 19 | Jay Litherland | 1:57.65 | 1:57.16 | 2:17.73 | 1:47.58 | 8:00.12 |
| 20 | Alberto Razzetti | 1:54.47 | 2:04.33 | 2:14.91 | 1:47.99 | 8:01.70 |
Swimmers Who Narrowly Missed Out:
- Gunnar Bentz, Thomas Fraser-Holmes, Ous Mellouli, and Thomas Ceccon were just outside the top 20 with less than three tenths of a second between them in 8:02.36, 8:02.58, 8:02.59, and 8:02.64 respectively. Ceccon took top spot in the 400IM add-up, but is sunk by a 2:20.88 200 breaststroke swim. Mellouli, despite being best known for the 800free and 1500 free, is also the African Record holder in the 400 IM in both long and short course.
- There is more elite 400 IM talent just outside the list, in the form of Max Litchfield (8:04.50), Brendon Smith (8:06.61), and Duncan Scott (8:11.56). Scott has just a 2:27.83 200 breast – given he is a 1:01-point swimmer in the 100, he could easily crack the top 20 with a more recent swim there.
- James Guy is a slightly surprising name near the list, without ever having swum IM at an elite level. He is actually above Scott with his 8:08.60, with a 2:22.90 200 breast nearly five seconds faster than his British teammate.
- Jack Conger and Kristof Milak are the top swimmers missing a breaststroke swim. Conger is slightly ahead after fly, back, and free in 5:35.71 to the Hungarian’s 5:35.83 – a 2:26-point 200 breast would have been enough to crack the list for both.
Thanks for the great work.
A few comments:
– Léon will probably lower his 200 back time this week.
– He swam 1:44 at Singapore in the 4×200 relay. It was a flying start, and we know that fly legs are not necessarily faster than flat starts in the 200 freestyle relay.
– we compare the supersuit era with the textile era.
– I would also have included the 200 IM in the analysis.
Lochte is the most surprising. I mean, the 200 fly and breast times must have been from forever ago, or at a meet that he literally didn’t care for. He must have been capable of at least a 1:57/2:11 combo, based on his 400 IM splits, and the fact that, of course, that he has the endurance OF a 400 IM specialist leads to the belief that he could churn out an evenly split 200 fly or breast
And he had 100m fly speed to boot
He just never had a coach like Bowman that would have insisted he swim these off events every year to judge progress.
Frankly, I’m surprised MP still tops Marchand; I wonder how old that 200 back time is for Leon.
Not as old as MPs 😉
phelps WAS half a second off of perisols world record when he swam the 200 back at…. 2004 trials, I believe? so not a bad time.
Lochte should be 4 Stroke 800IM Add-Up GOAT. If you throw in his ridiculously fast turns, then it’s game over.
If he’s slower than Phelps and Lochte in the 4IM, why would he be the 800 IM GOAT? He’s not more of a distance guy than Phelps (at least)…
Back in the day, Lochte was recruited as a distance freestyler
Also: https://www.omegatiming.com/File/000104090041000000FFFFFFFFFFFF01.pdf
He was the SEC champion and an NCAA finalist in the 1650 his freshman year.
Dang, I knew he had some sort of good 1650 result to his name but I couldn’t find it. I just remember Eddie (I think?) saying that in Lochte’s graduating class, it was him Davis Tarwater and I think one other guy as the top distance swimmers being recruited.
Lochte wouldn’t be the ‘800IM Goat’. He’d be the ‘800 IM Add-Up GOAT’.
It would be cool for this and the other charts to be interactive. I would be interested see how people move around if you could rank them by each stroke.
MP moves below Leon if textile times for 200 fly (1:52.09) and free (1:43.86) are used.
By next week leon will be lower after his 200 back
Yeah but Leon moves back below if bre*ststroke isn’t used
Small correction: Seliskar did swim an individual event at a Worlds/Olympics; he was 15th in the 200 free at the 2019 Worlds in Gwangju. Thats the only one though. And he never swam an indiviudal IM event, which is maybe what the comment is referring to.
Good spot, it was IM I’d meant to refer to – super-interesting that despite evidently being good across all strokes at both the 100 and 200 distances, he was never an elite international long course IM swimmer.
It’s crazy to think that if Phelps was still currently swimming he would still be at the top level .
At 40?
the 200 free and 200 fly were in a super suit, so he would not be above leon no matter his age/ability.
He went 1:52.0 and 1:43.8 in textile suits 20 years ago. If Phelps was 22 in 2026 he’d be still be a titan.
Here’s the thing you need to understand. There was a massive, enormous difference between the Speedo full body LZR and the Jaked full body. A “super suit” refers to the Jaked, full body, fully polyurethane suit. Phelps wore only the LZR, which, please trust, had a much lesser effect than the former. It was probably 20% polyurethane, the rest being the same material any tech jammer is made of today. YES, being full-body was advantageous, but to what degree? I’m not sure for Phelps it would make as big a difference. Those type of suits benefit more of the heavyweight guys, not really as much for thinner folks. Idk, that is my take. It would be interesting to see how… Read more »
I expect Marchand to swim 1:44.50 / 1:45 in the 200 free. If he decides to swim the event in an international competition, of course. But he seems more interested in the 400. He’ll probably be between 3:42.50 and 3:43.50 next summer, trained, prepared and tapered.
Maybe France will have him lead off the 4×2
Do we really think we’ll see a Marchand tapered 400m FR at a championship meet (if that’s what you’re implying)? I see the utility in training for the event, and surely given his incredible aerobic ability, he’d perform well. But, at blue ribbon meets why bother with something that would only detract from his prime events?
Disclaimer: This is a pessimistic take, and I would pay money to see Leon go all-in on a new event
He wants to swim the 400 free at an international level. It’s not a scoop. He told a few months ago that he’d have liked to swim the event in Singapore. But 2025, post-olympic year, was not optimal considering his training plus his injuries. I’m pretty sure he’ll swim it at Euros if qualified. And I bet on him in LA 2028. He wants to improve his freestyle, not only for the IM, but to race freestyle events. He’s far from a gold medal for now in the 400 free. But in two years ? This is Marchand. For five years, I read so many things from fans who didn’t believe in him. Under 3:30 in the SCY 400 IM… Read more »
What do we think his lineup will be at the European championships? If the meet was not in France, I think it would be a great chance for him to enter in several off-events. But maybe he wants to secure some golds for the local audience and still enters both IMs.