See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards right here.
Leon Marchand entered 2024 with a mountain of stress on his shoulders. He had simply been named the Male Swimmer of the Meet on the final two World Championships, had damaged Michael Phelps’ 400 IM world file (Phelps’ final particular person world file), and shattered NCAA data within the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 breaststroke. His accomplishments as he absolutely broke out onto the worldwide scene in 2022 and 2023 made him the face of France because the nation hosted the 2024 Olympics.
Marchand answered the hype time and time once more in 2024, incomes him the Swammy Award for Male Swimmer of the Yr.
NCAA Championships
Marchand caught with a person occasion lineup of the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 breast the previous two NCAA seasons. Nonetheless, one of many methods he selected to adapt to the rise in stress was to combine up his occasions. “I’m kind of taking part in with [the pressure] a little bit bit, that’s additionally why I modified occasions. I’m attempting to do completely different stuff…attempting to reply this stress,” Marchand shared on the 2024 NCAA Championships.
He swapped the 200 IM for the five hundred freestyle and broke the NCAA and U.S. Open data throughout his fourth official time swimming the race, cracking a 4:06.18. Later that month, he redefined what was attainable within the occasion, bringing the file right down to a mind-boggling 4:02.31. On the time of the swim, he was over 4 seconds quicker than the next-best swimmer in occasion historical past.
After repeating because the 400 IM champion, Marchand reset his NCAA and U.S. Open data within the 200 breast, closing out his particular person NCAA profession with a 1:46.35 to defend his NCAA title. Marchand additionally briefly held the NCAA file within the 200 freestyle, main off Arizona State’s 800 freestyle relay in 1:28.97—turning into the primary man sub-1:29—earlier than Luke Hobson took the file again the subsequent day.
He made extra historical past on Arizona State’s relays, throwing down a blistering 48.73 100 breaststroke cut up for the quickest cut up in historical past as he teamed with Hubert Kos, Ilya Kharun, and Jonny Kulow to win the Solar Devils’s first NCAA relay title in program historical past. Marchand led off the 400 freestyle relay in 40.28 as he, Jack Dolan, Patrick Sammon, and Kulow earned one other relay title for Arizona State to seal this system’s first NCAA Championship.
Olympics
Shortly after the 2024 NCAA Championships, Marchand introduced that he was executed with faculty swimming and would flip skilled. Along with his NCAA profession wrapped up, Marchand was absolutely centered on the Olympic Video games and headed to France to tackle a schedule of the 200 fly, 200 breaststroke, 200 IM, and 400 IM, which included a tricky 200 fly/200 breaststroke double as he eyed 4 golds in his second Video games.
However first was the 400 IM on Day Two, the place he’s the world file holder. His win in an Olympic file of 4:02.95 kickstarted an unimaginable week for the French followers, who acquired louder and louder for his or her swimmers because the week progressed. The highest of La Protection Area almost exploded when Marchand got here from behind on the ultimate 50 meters to out-touch world file holder nad defending Olympic champion Kristof Milak for gold within the males’s 200 butterfly. Marchand set an Olympic file of 1:51.21.
He was again on the blocks later that session for the 200 breaststroke. He led the race from begin to end, pulling off what appeared an not possible double with an Olympic and European file of two:05.85. His 200 breaststroke gold was his second of the session, and he grew to become the primary in 48 years to win two particular person Olympic golds in the identical session.
By Marchand’s ultimate particular person occasion, the 200 IM, followers had begun inserting his identify into “La Marseillaise” every time the anthem performed. They acquired an opportunity to do it once more as he gained his fourth Olympic gold by steamrolling to 1:54.06 for brand spanking new Olympic and European data.
The cherry on prime of a storybook meet for Marchand got here within the males’s 400 medley relay, the ultimate occasion of the Video games. He swam breaststroke on the medley relay, becoming a member of Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Maxime Grousset, and Florent Manaudou to put up a nationwide file 3:28.38 and declare bronze.
Marchand was chosen to extinguish the Olympic Cauldron on the Closing Ceremony to honor his efforts, which had captivated swimming followers in La Protection Area and captured all of Paris’ consideration. Through the Video games, Marchand’s outcomes have been even introduced at different Olympic venues just like the desk tennis and athletics arenas.
World Cup
After the Olympics, Marchand took on the one pool distance he had but to race in 2024: short-course meters. The Frenchman didn’t have a lot expertise within the self-discipline, nevertheless it didn’t take him lengthy to determine it out. He gained the boys’s standings on the three-stop circuit, finishing Triple Crowns within the 100 IM, 200 IM, and 400 IM.
His crowning achievement was his 1:48.88 within the 200 IM on the ultimate cease of the World Cup in Singapore, as he broke Ryan Lochte’s world file and rewrote the World Cup and European data he swam on the first cease of the tour in Shanghai (1:50.30). Marchand additionally set a European file and World Cup file within the 100 IM in Singapore, cracking the 50-second barrier with a 49.92.
Along with his IM sweep, the 22-year-old took silver within the Singapore 200 freestyle ultimate, touching in 1:40.91 behind Duncan Scott.
After his success on the World Cup tour, Marchand introduced that his season was executed as he withdrew from the 2024 Quick Course World Championships.
It was a superlative yr for Marchand as he ascended to a different stage of his profession. He continued to realize outcomes past the numerous expectations positioned on him. The spotlight of his yr was the Olympic Video games, as he acquired to put in writing a chapter into Olympic historical past and expertise the kind of Olympic success few swimmers obtain—and even fewer accomplish that in entrance of a home-nation crowd. However even past the Video games, Marchand confirmed that it doesn’t matter what measurement pool he’s in and virtually it doesn’t matter what occasion, he’s a big risk to strike gold.
Honorable Mentions:
- Pan Zhanle, China: No world data have been damaged by the primary 4 days of the 2024 Olympics. The discourse across the shallow pool in La Protection area flourished because the fifth evening of finals, which featured the boys’s 100 freestyle ultimate, rolled round. It’s swimming’s blue ribbon occasion, and although Pan Zhanle had fired off an early warning shot within the type of a championship file (46.92) main off China’s males’s 4×100 freestyle relay, it was one of the vital stacked fields in years, and it really felt just like the win may come from anyplace. Pan silenced that thought early within the race, leaping out to a four-tenths lead on the flip with a 22.28 cut up. He prolonged his lead on the again half of the race, closing in 24.12 as he smashed the world file he’d set in February in a blistering 46.40. He gained his first Olympic gold by over a second, with 2016 Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers second in 47.48. Pan closed his Video games by anchoring China’s gold-medal successful males’s 4×100 medley relay. The Chinese language quartet was third on the ultimate change, however Pan roared a forty five.92 anchor, taking on from Jason Lezak’s legendary cut up from Beijing because the quickest cut up in historical past, to safe gold and snap the US’ win streak within the occasion. Pan skipped the 2024 Quick Course Worlds, however he participated within the World Cup, the place he flexed his vary by swimming a World Cup and Chinese language file within the 800 freestyle (7:35.50). He additionally swam a Chinese language file within the 200 freestyle (1:41.59) and lifelong bests within the 400 freestyle (3:36.43) and 100 IM (51.78).
- Bobby Finke, United States: Bobby Finke performed the hero for the American males’s Olympic roster within the final particular person occasion of the meet—the boys’s 1500 freestyle. No American man had gained a person Olympic gold in Paris and Finke was the group’s final likelihood to keep away from snapping a century-long streak of American males successful particular person gold in at the least one occasion at each Olympics the nation attended. Finke saved the streak and did so in historic style, breaking Solar Yang’s world file within the males’s 1500 freestyle and defending his Olympic title from Tokyo. Finke switched up his technique to take action; relatively than hanging with the sector and unleashing a monstrous ultimate 50 meters, Finke attacked the race from the beginning, daring the sector to exit with him. Nobody may, and Finke led the ultimate from begin to end as he powered to a 14:30.67, breaking Solar’s 12-year-old world file by .35 seconds and the second particular person world file of the meet. Earlier, Finke was on the rostrum within the 800 freestyle, clocking a 7:38.75 for silver.
Previous Winners:
