In resumption this week in Fort Lauderdale (Florida, United States), the hero of the Paris Olympic Games, Léon Marchand, was beaten on Friday May 2, on his favorite distance, of which he is Olympic and world record holder, the 400 m four swimming, and suffered on 200 m freestyle.
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On 400 m four swimming, after a superb duel in the final stretch, Léon Marchand (4 min 13 s 86) was preceded by the American Bobby Finke (4 min 13 s 67), Olympic champion of 1,500 m in the summer of 2024 in Paris. “I am happy that Marchand has played a 200 m before!” I did my best to hold out ”Fine said at the microphone of the diffuser. The two swimmers remained at a good distance from the world record which was established by the French in 2023 in Japan (4 min 02 s 50).
Earlier in the afternoon, Léon Marchand had suffered on 200 m freestyle, he who challenged himself to progress in crawl. The quadruple Olympic champion (200 m breaststroke, butterfly and four swimming, 400 m four swimming) took the eighth place in the final in 1 min 49 s 66, far from the winner Carson Foster and his personal record (1 min 46 s 44 in 2023). The Frenchman had swam faster in the morning in series (1 min 48 s 05), for a day with four races.
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Léon Marchand is one of the big names of swimming engaged in the Floridian competition, disputed in Fort Lauderdale since Wednesday and until Saturday; He still has to swim there in 200 m breaststroke and four swimming.
Gretchen Walsh, under 25 seconds over 50 m butterfly
The Frenchman is back in Austin, Texas, under the orders of Bob Bowman after spending three months at the start of the year in Australia with the famous coach Dean Boxall. After being hit in a shoulder at the end of December 2024, he suffered a fracture of fatigue at a coast in Australia.
The American Gretchen Walsh became, Friday, the second swimmer in history in less than 25 seconds over 50 m butterfly (24 s 93), however from the world record of the Swedish Sarah Sjöström (24 s 43).
The nonuple Olympic champion Katie Ledcy, which had made a strong impression on 1,500 m then 400 m freestyle on previous days, was beaten on 200 m free swimming (1 min 55 s 51) by its compatriot Claire Weinstein (1 min 54 s 93).
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