2021 FRENCH ELITE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, June 15 – Sunday, June 20, 2021
- Piscine de l’Odyssée, Chartres, France
- Long Course Meters (50M)
- Olympic Selection Event
- French Olympic Qualifying Procedures
- Meet Site (LIVE FFN)
- List of Entrants
- Live Results
- Television rights: beIN SPORTS
Day 1 Finals Recap
19-year-old Leon Marchand became the first French Olympic qualifier on the first day of the 2021 French Elite Swimming Championships in the 400 IM, resetting his own national record by 5.32s.
The ASU commit, who turned 19 years old last month, first broke the French national record at the March 2021 FFN Golden Tour in Marseilles, where he swam a humble 4:14.97. Both of Marchand’s times in 2021 where under the 4:15.84 FINA A cut, which institutes an automatic Olympic qualification.
Comparing Marchand’s splits from March to today, he made improvements in his 100 fly (-1.4s), 100 breast (-2.72), and 100 free (-1.43s) splits along with slighting gaining 0.23s on his 100 back split. Marchand’s swim in Chartres also moved him from No. 40 to No. 4 all-time in European history.
Marchand is the son of Xavier Marchand, 1996/2000 Olympian and 1998 World runner-up, and 1992 Olympian Céline Bonnet.
| 2021 French Elite | 2021 FFN Golden Tour |
| 26.28 | 27.28 |
| 30.46 (56.74) | 30.86 (58.14) |
| 33.19 | 33.90 |
| 32.97 (1:06.16) | 32.03 (1:05.93) |
| 34.32 | 35.79 |
| 34.62 (1:08.94) | 35.87 (1:11.66) |
| 29.53 | 30.34 |
| 28.28 (57.81) | 28.90 (59.24) |
| 4:09.65 | 4:14.97 |
All-Time European Performers — Men’s 400 IM LCM
- Laszlo Cseh (HUN), 4:06.16 – 2008
- David Verraszto (HUN), 4:07.47 – 2017
- Max Litchfield (GBR), 4:09.62 – 2017
- Leon Marchand (FRA), 4:09.65 – 2021**
- Luca Martin (ITA), 4:09.88 – 2007
Reported by Ben Dornan.
MEN’S 400 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY – FINALS
- French Record: 4:14.97 – Léon Marchand (2021)
- Olympic Qualifying Standards: 4:21.46 in prelims and 4:15.84 in A-final
After missing the event at the 2021 European Championships due to a sprained finger, Leon Marchand made his comeback here count and swim a 4:09.65 to annihilate his own French record in the event of 4:14.97. That’s a major improvement for Marchand who only set that record a few months ago in March.
The time is well under the 4:15.84 he needed to qualify for the Olympics, making Marchand the first official qualifier for the French Olympic team at this meet.
Marchand was, however, the only man to get under the Olympic qualifying standard as Emilien Mattenet swam a 4:17.50 for the silver medal while Jaouad Syoud hit a 4:19.02 for bronze.
That swim for Mattenet was a bit off his PB of 4:16.45 from March 2021 while Syoud recorded his 2nd best time of the day, hitting a 4:20.58 in the morning which was quicker than his March 2021 PB of 4:22.48.
I note Leon Marchand’s time of 4:09.65 is only a fraction of a second slower than Chase Kalisz’s wining time of 4:09.09 in Wave II for the same event, and ahead of the second place Wave II time. I wonder what Leon can do when pushed? And he is only 19! It is going to be fun watching him in the ASU, PAC 12 and NCAA meets.
Time to upgrade his school choice.
Great point – who in their right mind would want to train under the guy who coached the greatest 400 IMer of all-time?
Foreign students don’t know any better. Go to Stanford if you can. He can have Minakov’s scholarship money
I would never have imagined that the 400m medley would allow French swimming to exist at the international level. Remember the european title of Fantine Lesaffre in this event 3 years ago! It’s a pleasure !
Great genes and an even better swim, making the Tokyo 400 IM final more interesting!
Might be a bit aggressive, but two seconds better in backstroke could be a podium finish in Tokyo.
sheeshhhhh
Interesting to see what Bowman will do with him. Although he may get a lot of flack, he knows how to coach 400 IMers.
and Crush french swimmers..
Listening to what Yannick has said, I really don’t think it was Bob’s fault. Yannick said he pushed himself too hard by going 100 percent every day, and his technique started to falter. He burned out, and Agnel continued to get slower as he left Bowman. He still speaks fondly of his time at NBAC
But this is the 400 IM. Bowman coached Phelps to a 4:03 in the 400 IM, and he coached Chase to a 4:06.
Yannick said he played video games until the wee morning hours. Training and this was too much to bear. Agreed, he was all praise for Bowman. ( From a long you tube interview)
Guy from Paris speaks fondly of spending time in Baltimore. That’s right up there with the many random things I didn’t think would happen today.
Post-London NBAC and SwimMAC felt like the progenitors to ISL. So many stars under those banners at once
Yannick admitted it later that one of the main reasons of his poor performance was the tragic death of his close friend : Camille Muffat. He struggled to move on
Yannick was already swimming slower at the 2013 worlds than in London. In the winter of 2015, the prospects of a podium in Rio were no longer very good and the death of Camille Muffat certainly did not help.
He took several months off before worlds. It was a very last minute thing, and he was very surprised at the result
Bowman will be long gone very soon after the Olympics. He only wants to coach one or two athletes because he’s a “personal trainer” not a swimming coach.
it works
And you know this how, exactly?
Perhaps listening to what Yannick had to say would be a good idea. BTW he’s only one French swimmer, not “swimmers”
Flickinger’s results within the past year speak for themselves
Good lord what a back half.
Phelps’ world record he was 1:56.49/2:07.35. So Marchand was 0.6 faster on the back half, but a full 6.4 slower on the front half. Kind of wild.