World Swimming Championships: Léon Marchand dominates the 200m medley heats in his debut

The expected start. For his first dive this Wednesday, July 30, in the pools of the World Swimming Championships, the Frenchman Léon Marchand swam in style: he dominated the 200m medley heats, beating the American Shaine Casas (1 minute 57 sec 76), his training partner at the University of Austin, and the Japanese Kosuke Makino (1 minute 57 sec 74) in 1 minute 57 seconds 63/100.

"It was the first time I'd seen this pool in competition, really. So I didn't have much of a reference point. But I swam well," said the reigning Olympic champion from Toulouse after his race. Marchand, who had long been building on Ryan Lochte's world record (1 min 54 s, in 2011) – which he aims to beat in Singapore – slowed his pace over the last 100 meters of the medley.

"That was kind of the goal. I wanted to test myself a little to see how I was," Marchand explained. "He'll be competing in the semifinals tonight a little after 7 p.m. (1 p.m. in France). It's going to be good tonight. I'm going to try to get close to my best time, I think."

Since his resounding performance at the Paris Olympics (four gold medals in the 200m medley, 400m medley, 200m breaststroke, and 200m butterfly), Bob Bowman's protégé has been a rare competitor. Exempted from the French Championships in June, he decided to focus on his two favorite races at the World Championships: the 200m medley and the 400m medley, which he has dominated for three years.

In the other major race of the morning for the French camp, sprinter Maxime Grousset , world champion in the 50m butterfly on Monday, qualified for the semi-final of the 100m freestyle with the 5th time in the series in 47.84 seconds. "It's very good for this morning, I felt good," assured the 26-year-old swimmer. "I didn't give it my all, so it's cool. The instruction was to stay calm, not get carried away, and that's what I did."

Overall, the morning went rather well for the French team, as all the other competitors qualified for the next round: Analia Pigrée and Mary-Ambre Moluh in the 50m backstroke, Rafael Fente-Damers in the 100m freestyle, and Lilou Ressencourt in the 200m butterfly. The French 4 x 100m medley relay team, however, finished 9th in the heats, just one place short of progressing to the final.