Swimming: for his return, Léon Marchand sets his personal best in the 400m freestyle and places third in the final

The four-time Olympic champion in Paris is testing his skills in the crawl ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

After almost six months of absence, Léon Marchand was expected to be among the headliners of the Tyr Pro Swim Series meeting in Fort Lauderdale , Florida (United States). Back from Australia, where he trained for several months after the Short Course World Cup, the Frenchman made a good impression on the first day of competition, Thursday, May 1st. He took third place in the 400m freestyle final, behind Kieran Smith, bronze medalist at Tokyo 2020, and the young Ryan Erisman, 19 years old. Above all, he set his personal best over the distance, in 3:48"97, after finishing sixth in the heats in 3:52"77.

This record was expected for the Frenchman, who had not participated in a 400m freestyle in a long course since January 2020 (4'04"65). But the four-time Olympic champion, who wants to test himself in the crawl , with a view to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, and to break his routine, has seen his training disrupted in recent months by a shoulder injury in December, and a stress fracture in a rib. To continue testing himself, he will participate in the 200m freestyle on Friday, before returning to a race he knows better, the 400m medley, of which he is the world record holder and reigning Olympic champion.