World Championships, Day Five Finals: Leon Marchand Mines Gold in 200 IM with No. 2 Time in History; Leads Training Group Sweep of Podium
There was a time when Michael Phelps routinely produced other-worldly performances in the pool. Sometimes, the efforts were of an individual nature. Other times, it was a body of work, such as what he pulled off at the 2007 World Championships and, more famously, at the 2008 Olympic Games.
When Phelps walked away from the sport following the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, a question arose: Will we ever see anything like him again? Given the extraordinary efforts of Phelps, it was a fair query. The American had taken the sport to a level previously unknown, his 28 Olympic medals a mind-numbing total and his ability to deliver under the spotlight equally difficult to digest.
Somehow, though, Leon Marchand has knocked on the door to Phelps’ exclusive club, and has been granted access. If he needed to provide a password for entry, consider this week’s performances in the 200-meter individual medley to be the codes.
One day after setting a world record in the semifinals of the 200 IM at the World Championships in Singapore, Marchand produced the second-fastst time in history when he touched the wall in 1:53.68. While the time was almost a second off the 1:52.69 he fired off in the semifinals, it earned the 23-year-old his third world title, complementing previous crowns from 2022 and 2023.
Marchand was followed to the wall by a pair of training partners at the University of Texas, with American Shaine Casas clocking 1:54.30 for the silver medal and Hungarian Hubert Kos touching in 1:55.34 for the bronze. The triumvirate works together each day in the Lonestar State, under the direction of coach Bob Bowman.
Before Marchand’s pair of virtuoso performances, the world record in the 200 medley stood to Ryan Lochte at 1:54.00. That standard was established at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, where Lochte was at the peak of his career and won four individual titles. Fourteen years later, Marchand seemingly smirked at Lochte’s legendary record, such was the greatness the Frenchman put on display.
