Swimming World Championships: How much will Léon Marchand receive for his double and his world record?

The image of Léon Marchand posing with a huge check for $30,000, rewarding the stratospheric world record he had just achieved in the semi-finals of the 200m medley (1'52''69), has been making the rounds on social media. It suggested that the French swimmer was going to hit the jackpot at the end of his World Championships in Singapore, since he was then on his way to winning two titles – 200 and 400m medley – as well as a silver medal in the 4x100m medley relay. An idea somewhat far from reality, even if, obviously, the sum of his winnings remains particularly interesting…

Thus, each of the two titles won by the Toulouse native earns him $20,000, according to the prize money decreed by World Aquatics. As for his silver medal in the relay, it adds $2,500 to the sum (i.e. $15,000 to be distributed equally among the six swimmers who took part in the heats and the final). In total, Marchand leaves Singapore with $72,500, which represents approximately €62,700, to which should be added some bonuses - the amount of which is not known - from the French Swimming Federation.

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A significant amount for a swimmer, but one that remains far removed from what he received thanks to his quadruple gold at the Paris 2024 Games (340,000 euros), and which even seems derisory in comparison, for example, to the 500,000 euros received by Tadej Pogacar at the end of his victorious Tour de France, or the more than 2 million euros earned by Carlos Alcaraz following his success at Roland-Garros.