“This Step Will Help Me” Says Leon Marchand Ahead Of Return To Racing At Ft. Lauderdale PSS

2025 Pro Swim Series – Fort Lauderdale

• Wednesday, April 30 – Saturday, May 3, 2025
• Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets (updated 4/28)
• Live Results

After two TYR Pro Swim Series meets where the depth was a bit lacking, the Fort Lauderdale Pro Series, which begins April 30, is a star-studded affair. And even among names like Katie Ledecky, Summer McIntosh, and Caeleb Dressel, Leon Marchand sticks out as he makes his 2025 competition debut.

A lot has happened for Marchand since he last raced at the 2024 SCM World Cup. He managed a rib injury and a shoulder injury and spent a significant training block in Australia with Dean Boxall and the high-powered St. Peters Western crew. Now, Marchand is back training with Bob Bowman, albeit in a new location in Austin, Texas.

Before the Fort Lauderdale meet’s start, the four-time Olympic champion spoke to L’Equipe about his reasons for making his return to racing at this meet. “I really want to,” he told the paper, “There’s going to be a pretty high level [of racing], with lots of American swimmers, but I have no idea where I am or where I’m going. I’m training because I want to work, to get back to my level a little, to get back to my routine. But this step will help me.”

Marchand entered the 200 breast, 200 IM, and 400 IM—all events where he won Olympic gold in Olympic record time last summer in Paris. But he’s taking on some untraditional events as well. He’s entered in the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle, events NCAA fans have seen him in the yards edition of, but that he has not raced long-course recently. In fact, his lifetime best in the 400-meter freestyle comes from 2020, before he began training under Bowman.

Marchand has a quick build-up to French Trials and the 2025 World Aquatics Championships after not racing for the first four months of 2025. However, the Fort Lauderdale Pro Series won’t be his only racing opportunity before French Trials in early June. Bob Bowman revealed on the SwimSwam podcast that Texas will host a meet in two weeks, giving its elite athletes—including those who cannot make the trip to Fort Lauderdale because of academic obligations—another chance to check-in before Trials.