Leon Marchand, named yesterday for four events in the swimming which starts tomorrow at the European Aquatics Championships Paris 2026, has reduced his programme to two events.
The 24-year-old French sporting icon has withdrawn from the 200m and 400m individual medley, two of the four individual events he won at Paris 2024, but remains on the official entry list for the men’s 200m butterfly – in which he won another one of his Olympic golds – and the men’s 400m freestyle, which is relatively new territory for him.
Both the medley events involve breaststroke, which is what he was competing in at the French Championships in late June when he strained his left adductor. He has since told L’Equipe that he aggravated the injury three weeks after the Championships and had continuing concerns about swimming breaststroke.
Marchand, who won his Paris 2024 200m butterfly title in an Olympic record of 1:51.21, tops the European list in this event with 1:52.57, from Poland’s Krzystof Chmielewski on 1:52.64 and Italy’s Albert Razzetti on 1:54.47.
If Marchand is to win his first senior European medal, it looks like it will have to be in the butterfly.
In the men’s 400m freestyle, where the US-based Marchand set his personal best of 3:44.70 at last December’s US Open in Austin, Texas, he stands ninth in a list topped by Germany’s world and Olympic champion Lukas Martens, who set a world record of 3:39.96 last year and has clocked 3:40.61 this year.
The top echelon also includes Germany’s Paris 2024 open water swimming silver medallist Oliver Klemet, who has clocked 3:43.14 this year, Great Britain’s James Guy, on 3:44.04, and Germany’s 19-year-old Johannes Liebmann, who has swum 3:44.59.
Liebmann tops the list in the 800m freestyle thanks to the European record of 7:37.94 he produced in Stockholm on April 12 this year. One place behind him is team-mate Sven Schwarz, the previous holder of the European record, whose mark of 7:38.12 in last year’s German championships lowered the record of 7:38.19 set by Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen in winning the Paris 2024 title.
Klemet, a third German distance powerhouse, is third fastest on 7:44.61 with Victor Johannson of Sweden on 7:44.81 and Wiffen on 7:45.17.
In the men’s 1500m freestyle Schwarz leads the way on 14:35.69 from Klemet on 14:39.03 and Liebmann on 14:39.67. Wiffen is one place below this redoubtable German trio on 14:44.70.
Martens will also be contesting a spectacular-looking men’s 200m freestyle, where he is the second fastest this year on 1:44.25.
Romania’s Paris 2024 200m freestyle champion David Popovici tops this year’s world rankings for this event with the 1:44.48 he clocked at the Sette Colli meeting in Rome on June 28.
The 21-year-old from Bucharest looks odds-on to win a third consecutive European title in this event.
But he will not be able to relax given the quality of the rest of a field which will also include Britain’s Matt Richards, who finished just 0.02 behind him in the Paris 2024 final and is third fastest European this year on 1:44.77.
Also in contention will be James Guy, who has combined with Richards in world and Olympic 4x200m freestyle victories, Italy’s Carlos D’Ambrosio and Germany’s Lukas Martens.
Popovici also heads the field in the 100m freestyle thanks to the European record of 46.51 – just 0.11 off Pan Zhanle’s Paris 2024 world record – he set at last summer’s World Aquatics Championships.
But the Romanian will have serious contenders in the form of NAB’s Egor Kornev, who has clocked 46.96 this year, and Richards, who has recorded 47.53.
France’s world 50m and 100m butterfly champion Maxime Grousset is third on the list with 47.50, but his case has been altered by the injury he picked up in training early in June when he broke a bone in his left foot.
Grousset was cautious about his prospects when speaking at the Eiffel Tower press conference marking 15 days to go until the start of the European Aquatics Championships.
Kornev meanwhile is favourite in the men’s 50m freestyle, where he has clocked 21.06 this year. Andrej Barna of Serbia is second fastest on 21.44, with Grousset third on 21.51.
It remains to be seen what level Grousset will be able to reach in the 50m and 100m butterfly. While he tops the list for both events with 22.48 and 49.62 respectively, the Swiss rival whom he beat to both titles in Singapore last year, Noe Ponti, will be eager to make use of any signs of weakness.
Ponti stands second in both lists on 22.51 and 49.63.
Not that either event lacks for talent. Kornev is third in the 50m butterfly listings on 22.59 ahead of Italy’s Olympic 100m backstroke champion Thomas Ceccon on 22.67.
While in the 100m butterfly Ceccon is fourth in the rankings on 50.41 sandwiched between two world class Hungarian talents.
Kristof Milak, the Tokyo 2020 champion at 200m butterfly and Paris 2024 gold medallist in this event, is ranked third with a time of 50.22, while Hubert Kos, the Olympic and world 200m backstroke champion, is fifth on 50.55.
Kos is ranked third in the men’s 100m backstroke on 52.20 in a list topped by Ceccon on 51.80 and France’s world 100m and 200m backstroke bronze medallist Yohann Ndoye-Brouard on 51.92.
He tops the 200m backstroke lists with his European record of 1:53.19 from Singapore, with Greece’s Apostolos Siskos second on 1:54.12 and Ndoye-Brouard third on 1:54.47.
In the 50m backstroke Kos is ranked ninth on 24.50 in a list topped by NAB’s Kliment Kolesnikov on 23.68 and Pavel Samusenko on 24.12, with Great Britain’s Oliver Morgan third on 24.38.
And in the absence of Marchand, Kos tops the pile in the men’s 200m individual medley on 1:55.34 from Great Britain’s Commonwealth champion Duncan Scott on 1:55.51 and NAB’s Mikhail Shcherbakov on 1:57.12.
NAB’s Ilia Borodin heads the men’s 400m IM field on 4:09.06 from Great Britain’s Max Litchfield on 4:11.41.
Having been away from long course competition between the Paris 2024 Olympics and the Edinburgh International in March, Britain’s multiple world and Olympic champion Adam Ramsay-Peaty has clocked 26.64 and 58.97 for the 50m and 100m breaststroke respectively.
But at the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow the 31-year-old’s his ambitions took a dent as he was clearly dissatisfied with bronze in each event as he recorded 26.94 and 59.65.
He lies sixth in terms of rankings in the 50m breaststroke, where Italians Ludovico Viberti and world champion Simone Cerasuolo top the list on 26.27 and 26.42 respectively.
The Briton lies seventh in the 100m breaststroke listings which are headed by NAB’s Kirill Progoda on 58.53 and Italy’s Olympic champion Nicolo Martinenghi on 58.58.
Meanwhile Ramsay-Peaty’s 18-year-old team-mate Filip Nowacki, who is ninth in the 100m breaststoke standings, tops the list for the 200m breaststroke with 2:07.32 from Caspar Corbeau of The Netherlands on 2:07.73 and Prigoda on 2:07.99.
Of the relay events the men’s 4x200m freestyle will be the most eagerly awaited, as Great Britain have the potential to come close to a world record.
Denmark’s Alexander Hillhouse is the leading contender in the men’s 50m freestyle para with a time of 24.57. In the men’s 100m version he stands second on 53.75 behind Dutch swimmer Thomas van Wanrooij on 53.36.
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Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
