Léon Marchand returned to competition on Monday evening at the European swimming championships in Saint-Denis, two years after his haul of Olympic medals in Paris.
The 24-year-old from Toulouse, still hampered by injury, opened his campaign in the 4x200m freestyle relay with his French teammates rather than in the 400m individual medley, an event he normally dominates. The relay was set to start at 7:33pm on August 10, 2026, at the Centre Aquatique Olympique Métropole du Grand Paris.
Marchand suffered a right adductor injury at the French championships in late June. The four-time Olympic champion from the 2024 Paris Games judged himself not sufficiently recovered to compete in the 200m and 400m individual medley this week, and the French Swimming Federation announced his withdrawal from both events in a statement on Saturday.
Marchand said on Sunday at a press conference that it had been very difficult to make that decision, adding that the medley was the race he had wanted to succeed in most this year.
He said he had tested himself quickly and feared getting injured, explaining that he did not feel solid enough to rebuild his breaststroke in time.
Marchand will instead swim two individual races: the 200m butterfly, an event he already masters with an Olympic and a world title to his name, and the 400m freestyle, which will be new territory for him. He described it as very exciting but also very mysterious, saying he had practiced it often in training but was unsure how it would go in competition, calling it a big challenge.
New goals in unfamiliar events
Marchand said he believed he could do fairly fun things in freestyle and butterfly and wanted to test himself in races he does not usually swim at a high level, though he said he did not yet know his full relay schedule. He will also compete for the first time at a long-course European championships, giving him a new title to pursue, and admitted he inevitably wanted to win and go after gold in one race.
A break before the butterfly heats
Marchand, who swims for the Dauphins du TOEC club and is used to racing frequently, will have a three-day break until Friday, August 14, when the 200m butterfly heats begin. He said he would be able to come to the pool just to watch the races, calling it cool.
Speaking in the new aquatic center built in Saint-Denis, a legacy of the Olympic Games whose swimming events were held in the summer of 2024 at the Paris La Défense Arena pool, Marchand said he had liked the venue a lot since arriving two days earlier, finding it really great, and said he also felt good in the water, which he called important.
Chasing the crowd's energy
The 24-year-old swimmer is expected to draw strong support from the French public for this new major international event in the capital. He said he would try to take in the energy there was to take and hoped people would be there to cheer them on, in his pursuit of gold and memories.
