In Lublin, Poland or Austin, Texas, the spotlight will swing between east and west this week for the performance analysts at the French Swimming Federation (FFN). While the French national team competes at the European Short Course Championships in Poland, Léon Marchand will return to racing on Thursday, December 4, at the long-course US Open in the Texas city where he has lived since April.
This is the reality of French swimming today. Its biggest star, the four-time Olympic champion from the Paris 2024 Games, has spent several years training in the United States under American coach Bob Bowman, and often follows his French teammates’ performances from afar. After a studious start to the season, Marchand will race in Texas in his first long-course competition since the World Championships in Singapore last July and August.
In the Asian city-state, the Toulouse native won two more world titles – in the 200 m individual medley and the 400 m individual medley – and set a new world record in the former event (1 min 52 s 69). After three weeks of vacation, he resumed training at the end of the summer with two objectives in mind: the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games in the long term, and the European Championships in Paris in 2026 as a medium-term goal.
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