Leon Marchand Swims 2:06.59 200 Breast French Record, #4 Performer All-Time (VIDEO)

2023 FRENCH ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, June 11th – Friday, June 16th
• Rennes, France
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MEN’S 200 BREASTSTROKE – FINAL

• French Record: 2:08.76, Leon Marchand (2022)
• World Championships ‘A’ Cut: 2:10.32
• France’s Qualifying Time for Fukuoka: 2:10.32

Top 8:

1. Leon Marchand – 2:06.59
2. Antoine Marc – 2:09.68
3. Lucien Vergnes – 2:11.19
4. Antoine Viquerat – 2:11.23
5. Clement Bidard – 2:12.17
6. Jeremy Desplanches – 2:14.39
7. Carl Aitkaci – 2:14.43
8. Melaine Laine – 2:14.47

Leon Marchand has once again proved that he is out-of-this-world, this time swimming a 2:06.59 in the men’s 200 breast on the opening night of the 2023 French Elite Championships to break his own French record time of 2:08.76 by over two seconds. In addition, he also becomes the fourth-fastest performer of all-time and the second-fastest European of all-time with his swim.

All-Time Top Performers, Men’s 200-meter breaststroke:

1. Zac Stubblety-Cook, Australia — 2:05.95 (2022)
2. Anton Chupkov, Russia —2:06.12 (2019)
3. Shoma Sato, Japan — 2:06.40 (2021)
4. Leon Marchand, France — 2:06.59 (2023)
5. Ippei Watanabe, Japan (2017)/Matthew Wilson, Australia (2019) — 2:06.67

With Marchand being just 0.64 seconds away from Zac Stubblety-Cook‘s best time of 2:05.95, the 200-breast world record is suddenly well within his grasp. He has made tremendous progression in the event over the last two years, as he entered 2022 with a personal best of 2:11.46, and has since then dropped nearly five seconds.

Compared to when he last set the French record at the 2022 Spanish Open last summer, Marchand has gotten better on both his front and back half, dropping over a second in his first and second 100 free. Where he made the most improvement was on his final 50, where he dropped 0.71 seconds from his Spanish Open swim.

Marchand was ahead of world record pace for the first 150 meters of his swim on Sunday, but he couldn’t outpace Stubblety-Cook’s herculean final 50 that was over a second faster than his.

Comparative Splits:

Here is video of the swim, courtesy of Paul Griffin on Twitter:

Leon Marchand 2:06.59 in the 200 breaststroke. This guy is definitely going to take down Phelps last remaining world record at some stage in the 400 IM. @kylesockwell @swimcoverage @NelsonCarterJr @StateOfSwimming pic.twitter.com/Wcs4xsxc7W

— Paul Griffin (@PGriffinFC) June 11, 2023

Last year, Marchand did not swim the 200 breast at the 2022 World Championships, opting to only race the 200 fly, 200 IM, and 400 IM instead. In April 2023, he said that he wanted to swim the 200 breast at Worlds, but that his head coach Bob Bowman advised against it because the semi-finals of the 200 breast come right before the finals of the 200 IM. However, Marchand said that he was open to racing the event at the Paris 2024 Olympic games.