Above water, Léon Marchand won his first event by crushing his own record in the 500 yards of the NCAA finals

Léon Marchand a écrasé une nouvelle course et battu un nouveau record. XinHua – Xia Yifang

Le Toulousain Léon Marchand a remporté la finale du 500 yards nage libre à Indianiapolis (États-Unis) pour les finales universitaires NCAA. Il a par la même occasion battu le record de l’épreuve ainsi que son record personnel.

French swimming star Léon Marchand got off to a perfect start to the NCAA university finals by setting a new benchmark time in the 500-yard freestyle Thursday in Indianapolis (Indiana, United States).

Four months before the Paris Olympic Games (July 26 & August 11), Marchand won his first individual event on Thursday, the 500 yards freestyle (457 ;m, in short course) in 4’ 02” 31, greatly improving his own NCAA record (4’ 06” 18).

🏊‍♂️ #NCAASwim – 500Y NAGE LIBRE :

🥇 Léon Marchand 😈 (🇫🇷) 4:02.31
NCAA RECORD 🔥
🥈 Luke Hobson 🤘 4:06.93
🥉 Jake Magahey 🐶 4:07.12 #Natation pic.twitter.com/uq6xglBa21

— MR.CARTER (@NelsonCarterJr) March 29, 2024

Two more races Friday

The 21-year-old Frenchman, three-time world champion last summer in Fukuoka (Japan), is participating in the NCAA finals for Arizona State University (ASU), where he studies and studies. trains with Bob Bowman, former mentor of Michael Phelps.

Marchand had already helped ASU take second place in the 4 x 50 yard medley and 4 x 200 yard relays on Wednesday. The world record holder in the 400 m medley must now compete in the 400-yard medley on Friday then the 200-yard breaststroke on Friday.