00:00Leon Marchand just won his fourth individual gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics while
00:05coming within inches of a world record. Marchand has been the man to beat since his breakout at
00:102022 Worlds. He won this event both in 2022 and then again in 2023. But unlike the 400 IM from
00:17earlier in the meet, he had a little more competition in the 200 IM. Wang Shan of China
00:22is the defending Olympic champion in the event, and even holds a faster personal best than Marchand
00:27by two tenths. Both of these swimmers went these times in 2023, with Marchand hitting his time at
00:33that year's Worlds and Wang a few months later at the Asian Games. And Wang proved he would be a
00:37tough obstacle for Marchand at the very first 50, where he actually had the lead, opening up the
00:42butterfly leg in 2465, just ahead of Marchand. Marchand took the lead on the backstroke leg,
00:48splitting a 2883. Despite this being Marchand's weakest stroke of the four, he still has the
00:53fastest split out of anyone in the field. This leg also saw Carson Foster and Duncan Scott move
00:59up to 3rd and 4th after being 7th and 8th at the first wall. And of course Marchand pressed his
01:04lead big time on the breaststroke, splitting a massive 3236, which is almost a second faster
01:10than the next fastest split, the split by Scott that moved him ahead of Foster and Wang into the
01:15second spot. Scott and Foster closed faster than Marchand, but it wasn't even close to enough,
01:20as Leon Marchand powered his way home to another gold medal in a blistering 15406.
01:26That is a new Olympic record, beating out Michael Phelps's 15423 from Beijing,
01:32and of course is just six hundredths away from Ryan Lochte's 15400 that survives another day
01:38as the world record. Duncan Scott extended his lead over Wang Chun on the final 50, as those two
01:43grabbed the silver and bronze, while Carson Foster ran out of room and missed the medals by just a
01:48tenth. That swim for Marchand moves him from the 4th to the 2nd fastest performer in the history
01:54of this event, and now sits lurking right behind Lochte's world record mark. Looking at the splits
01:58between this swim for Marchand, his old personal best, and the world record, we can spot some
02:03differences. Marchand was out a bit quicker on the start, going from just behind Lochte to just
02:08ahead. Unsurprisingly, Lochte has a very quick backstroke leg to be just ahead of Marchand's
02:14split at the 100. Notably, this is the only leg where Marchand was faster in 2023 than he was in
02:192024. Marchand was only just ahead of his former best time at the halfway mark, as he was out in
02:2553.55 compared to 53.60, so most of his time drop came on the back end. That started with the
02:31breaststroke split, as Marchand blasted a 32.36, far faster than his 2023 split or Lochte's split.
02:38Marchand closed his race in a 28.15, a touch faster than last year's world's, but of course,
02:44Lochte came flying home in his 2011 race with a 27.49 split. That 27.49 is going to be a problem
02:52for anyone that wants to crack this world record. Either you have to match it, or you have to have
02:56such a big lead that it won't catch you, both of which are pretty tough to do. Lochte was swimming
03:01with every ounce of effort he had those last 50 meters, as he was being chased by Phelps,
03:05who actually split a 27.36 in that same race. Being hunted down by the greatest swimmer ever?
03:11Yeah, that'll motivate you into a pretty quick split, and it's the kind of push that Marchand
03:16didn't have as he was well ahead of the rest of the field by that point. This world record by
03:20Lochte is an interesting piece of swimming history. It was the first world record to be broken
03:24after the super suit ban, and is one of the very rare instances where Michael Phelps swam a lifetime
03:30but got second. Marchand's 154.06 is an amazing swim, and one that certainly scares this long
03:36standing world record. With this win, Marchand completes a sweep of his individual races,
03:40going 4 for 4 in gold medals in front of a roaring home crowd. Which of Marchand's
03:45swims was the most impressive to you, and do you think he takes this world record down in a year?
03:49Let me know down below.
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