Léon Marchand claimed both individual medley titles at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, taking his career total to seven World Championship gold medals. The Frenchman won the 200m crown on 31 July and returned on the final night to dominate the 400m.
A world record and a tight final battle
The 200m gold was secured a day after Marchand had already rewritten the record books. In the semi-finals he clocked 1:52.69, removing 1.31 seconds from Ryan Lochte’s 2011 mark of 1:54.00. The final itself was a more tactical affair, with Shaine Casas of the United States pushing hard early.
Marchand responded lap by lap and pulled clear on the breaststroke leg, touching in 1:53.68. Casas took silver in 1:54.30. “I know Shaine always goes out super fast, so I knew I wouldn’t be far off from him,” Marchand told reporters afterwards. “It was a battle all the way to the end.”
A four-second margin on the closing night
Three days later the 400m medley became a solo demonstration. Marchand stopped the clock at 4:04.73, almost four seconds ahead of Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita, the same swimmer who had followed him home at the Paris Olympics.
France head coach Nicolas Castel described it as “a very well-executed race, controlled from start to finish.” Marchand himself admitted he had hoped to go faster. “I felt really good during warm-up, and I thought I could get close to my record. Unfortunately, I’m still a bit off.”
The arc of a record-breaking career
The Singapore double extends a sequence that began in Budapest in 2022, where Marchand won his first world title in the 400m medley. In Fukuoka a year later he broke Michael Phelps’ 400m medley world record, and at Paris 2024 he became the most decorated athlete of the Games with four individual Olympic golds.
He closed his Singapore campaign by anchoring France to silver in the 4x100m medley relay, helping the host nation finish third in the medal table. His seven world titles now span only three championship appearances.
“Today was proof that I made the right choices and that I’m doing what I love,” Marchand said quietly on the pool deck.