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Leon Marchand's world record feat at the 2025 World Aquatic Championships garnered reactions from Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky. The 23-year-old broke the 200m individual medley world record in the semifinals, eclipsing Ryan Lochte's previous mark of 1:54:00.
Marchand has been a force to be reckoned with since his NCAA days with the Arizona State Sun Devils. Having won NCAA titles in the 200-yard individual medley and 200-yard breaststroke, the Frenchman continued his momentum at the World Aquatics Championships in 2022 and 2023, besides making waves on the collegiate level.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, he lowered the Olympic records in the 400m individual medley, 200m individual medley, 200m butterfly, and 200m breaststroke. He also won bronze in the 100m medley relay. His next stint at the Swimming World Cup saw him break the short-course world record in the 200m individual medley.
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Marchand recently broke Ryan Lochte's 200m individual medley world record by clocking an impressive 1:52.69. His victorious feat at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships garnered congratulatory notes from the legendary Michael Phelps and the most decorated female swimmer, Katie Ledecky.
In admiration of the youngster's finesse, Phelps wrote:
"Lfg! What a swim man, congrats homie!!"
Ledecky joined his likes and commented:
"Insane"
Phelps has another connection with Marchand since the latter trains under his long-time coach, Bob Bowman. The Frenchman first reached out to Bowman when he was the coach at Arizona State University, asking whether he could join the college program in the summer of 2021. Marchand also followed his coach to Austin when he started coaching at the University of Texas.
Michael Phelps once hailed Leon Marchand when he broke the 400m individual medley world record
Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympian of all time, boasting 28 Olympic gold medals in his wall of fame, made headlines by breaking the 400m individual medley world record in 4:03.84 at the 2008 Olympics. Having broken 39 world records in his career, Phelps had only one unbroken record, but the 23-year-old smashed it at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
Speaking about it in a Forbes interview, while in attendance at an Omega event alongside Marchand, the 40-year-old said:
"To be honest, I was trying to hold it for 20 years. So I got there. I can say I hold the longest-standing swimming World Record. That’s something really cool. But in Léon’s race, as soon as he turned with 100 to go, and he was a body length ahead of the record, I knew he wasn’t going to fade. As I said before, I knew it was going to get broken. I just didn't know when.”
Michael Phelps retired in 2016 after the Rio Games appearance, but his dominance still resonates. He was the Hospitality Ambassador of the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris 2024, the second Games he didn't participate.
