By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
After about six weeks away from the pool post-Olympics, French swimmer Leon Marchand returns to training today in France in preparations for a deep dive into the international short course meters season.
During his break, Marchand spent time travelling – including going on stage with DJ David Guetta in the famous party mecca of Ibiza, Spain.
He was also honored as the rank of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by President Emmanuel Macron, the entry level of the country’s highest national order of merit system.
“I took a long vacation and I tried to enjoy it,” Léon Marchand told RMC Sport on Saturday. “I also took some time alone where I was able to reflect and think about what I had done. So I have more perspective and I am much more calm about what I did a month and a half ago. I realized. It’s crazy and I’m so happy to have done it.” Before concluding: “It’s a lot of work behind it and that’s what I’m thinking about the most… And we’re going to have to get back to work.”
Marchand is scheduled for nine sessions this week back in his home city of Toulouse, France where coach Nicolas Castel will guide his training for the next several months. Castel says that with Marchand’s primary coach Bob Bowman focusing on his transition to Director of Swimming at top American collegiate program the University of Texas, it will be Castel who will manage Leon’s training until the new year. At that point, the French swimmer is expected to return to Austin, Texas and his partnership with Bowman.
Until then, Marchand will take place in all three stops of the short course meters World Cup in October and early November, in Asia, and the World Short Course Championships in December in Budapest, Hungary. This means he will miss the French Short Course Championships.
“He wants it to be a bit of a fun period,” Castel said to RMC Sport. “He is not putting any pressure on himself for the World Cups. He has no particular expectations. He wants to have fun. He wants to discover this format since he has never taken part in World Cups. For him, it will be a good exercise to prepare himself this time for the short course world championships.”
Castel teased Marchand swimming some secondary events in those meets as well.
Leon Marchand‘s Remaining 2024 International Competition Schedule
- Shanghai, China (October 18-20)
- Incheon, South Korea (October 24-26)
- Singapore (October 31-November 2)
- World Short Course Championships, Budapest, Hungary (December 10-15)
Marchand has shown off how good he is in short course yards via record-obliterating performances in the NCAA, but he hasn’t raced in short course meters since December 2019, before arriving in the United States and blooming from a talented age grouper to a global swimming superstar.
In many races, that has left his personal bests in an inverted position where his long course meters best times are faster than his short course meters best times – an unusual scenario. That includes in basically all of his primary events.
Below is a table of his short course bests in a few primary events, plus the French and World Records he might clear.
| SCM Best | French SCM Record | World SCM Record | |
| 200 free | 1:51.21 | 1:39.70 (Yannick Agnel, 2012) | 1:39.37 (Paul Biedermann, 2009) |
| 400 free | 4:30.30 | 3:32.25 (Yannick Agnel, 2012) | 3:32.25 (Yannick Agnel, 2012) |
| 200 breast | 2:05.85 | 2:03.33 (Antoine Viquerat, 2022) | 2:00.16 (Kirill Prigoda, 2018) |
| 200 fly | 1:58.49 | 1:50.73 (Franck Esposito, 2002) | 1:46.85 (Tomoru Honda, 2022) |
| 200 IM | 1:58.07 | 1:54.00 (Jeremy Stravius, 2012) | 1:49.63 (Ryan Lochte, 2012) |
| 400 IM | 4:07.55 | 4:06.85 (Jeremy Stravius, 2012) | 3:54.81 (Daiya Seto, 2019) |
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Leon Marchand Returns to Training Today; Plans to Swim World SC Championships