2024 Swammy Awards: Male Swimmer of the Year – Leon Marchand

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By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam

See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards here.

Leon Marchandentered 2024 with a mountain of pressure on his shoulders. He had just been named the Male Swimmer of the Meet at the last two World Championships, had broken Michael Phelps' 400 IM world record (Phelps' last individual world record), and shattered NCAA records in the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 breaststroke. His accomplishments as he fully broke out onto the international scene in 2022 and 2023 made him the face of France as the country hosted the 2024 Olympics.

Marchand answered the hype time and time again in 2024, earning him the Swammy Award for Male Swimmer of the Year.

NCAA Championships

Marchand stuck with an individual event lineup of the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 breast the past two NCAA seasons. However, one of the ways he chose to adapt to the increase in pressure was to mix up his events. "I'm sort of playing with [the pressure] a little bit, that's also why I changed events. I'm trying to do different stuff…trying to answer this pressure," Marchand shared at the 2024 NCAA Championships.

He swapped the 200 IM for the 500 freestyle and broke the NCAA and U.S. Open records during his fourth official time swimming the race, cracking a 4:06.18. Later that month, he redefined what was possible in the event, bringing the record down to a mind-boggling 4:02.31. At the time of the swim, he was over four seconds faster than the next-best swimmer in event history.

After repeating as the 400 IM champion, Marchand reset his NCAA and U.S. Open records in the 200 breast, closing out his individual NCAA career with a 1:46.35 to defend his NCAA title. Marchand also briefly held the NCAA record in the 200 freestyle, leading off Arizona State's 800 freestyle relay in 1:28.97—becoming the first man sub-1:29—before Luke Hobsontook the record back the next day.

He made more history on Arizona State's relays, throwing down a blistering 48.73 100 breaststroke split for the fastest split in history as he teamed with Hubert Kos, Ilya Kharun, and Jonny Kulowto win the Sun Devils's first NCAA relay title in program history. Marchand led off the 400 freestyle relay in 40.28 as he, Jack Dolan, Patrick Sammon, and Kulow earned another relay title for Arizona State to seal the program's first NCAA Championship.

Olympics

Shortly after the 2024 NCAA Championships, Marchand announced that he was done with college swimming and would turn professional. With his NCAA career wrapped up, Marchand was fully focused on the Olympic Games and headed to France to take on a schedule of the 200 fly, 200 breaststroke, 200 IM, and 400 IM, which included a tough 200 fly/200 breaststroke double as he eyed four golds in his second Games.

But first was the 400 IM on Day Two, where he is the world record holder. His win in an Olympic record of 4:02.95 kickstarted an incredible week for the French fans, who got louder and louder for their swimmers as the week progressed. The top of La Defense Arena nearly exploded when Marchand came from behind on the final 50 meters to out-touch world record holder nad defending Olympic champion Kristof Milakfor gold in the men's 200 butterfly. Marchand set an Olympic record of 1:51.21.

He was back on the blocks later that session for the 200 breaststroke. He led the race from start to finish, pulling off what seemed an impossible double with an Olympic and European record of 2:05.85. His 200 breaststroke gold was his second of the session, and he became the first in 48 years to win two individual Olympic golds in the same session.

By Marchand's final individual event, the 200 IM, fans had begun inserting his name into "La Marseillaise" each time the anthem played. They got a chance to do it again as he won his fourth Olympic gold by steamrolling to 1:54.06 for new Olympic and European records.

The cherry on top of a storybook meet for Marchand came in the men's 400 medley relay, the final event of the Games. He swam breaststroke on the medley relay, joining Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Maxime Grousset, and Florent Manaudouto post a national record 3:28.38 and claim bronze.

Marchand was chosen to extinguish the Olympic Cauldron at the Closing Ceremony to honor his efforts, which had captivated swimming fans in La Defense Arena and captured all of Paris' attention. During the Games, Marchand's results were even announced at other Olympic venues like the table tennis and athletics arenas.

World Cup

After the Olympics, Marchand took on the one pool distance he had yet to race in 2024: short-course meters. The Frenchman didn't have much experience in the discipline, but it didn't take him long to figure it out. He won the men's standings at the three-stop circuit, completing Triple Crowns in the 100 IM, 200 IM, and 400 IM.

His crowning achievement was his 1:48.88 in the 200 IM at the final stop of the World Cup in Singapore, as he broke Ryan Lochte's world record and rewrote the World Cup and European records he swam at the first stop of the tour in Shanghai (1:50.30). Marchand also set a European record and World Cup record in the 100 IM in Singapore, cracking the 50-second barrier with a 49.92.

In addition to his IM sweep, the 22-year-old took silver in the Singapore 200 freestyle final, touching in 1:40.91 behind Duncan Scott.

After his success on the World Cup tour, Marchand announced that his season was done as he withdrew from the 2024 Short Course World Championships.

It was a superlative year for Marchand as he ascended to another level of his career. He continued to achieve results beyond the significant expectations placed on him. The highlight of his year was the Olympic Games, as he got to write a chapter into Olympic history and experience the type of Olympic success few swimmers achieve—and even fewer do so in front of a home-nation crowd. But even beyond the Games, Marchand showed that no matter what size pool he's in and almost no matter what event, he's a significant threat to strike gold.

Honorable Mentions:

• Pan Zhanle, China: No world records were broken through the first four days of the 2024 Olympics. The discourse around the shallow pool in La Defense arena flourished as the fifth night of finals, which featured the men's 100 freestyle final, rolled around. It's swimming's blue ribbon event, and though Pan Zhanle had fired off an early warning shot in the form of a championship record (46.92) leading off China's men's 4×100 freestyle relay, it was one of the most stacked fields in years, and it truly felt like the win could come from anywhere. Pan silenced that thought early in the race, leaping out to a four-tenths lead at the turn with a 22.28 split. He extended his lead on the back half of the race, closing in 24.12 as he smashed the world record he'd set in February in a blistering 46.40. He won his first Olympic gold by over a second, with 2016 Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers second in 47.48. Pan closed his Games by anchoring China's gold-medal winning men's 4×100 medley relay. The Chinese quartet was third at the final exchange, but Pan roared a 45.92 anchor, taking over from Jason Lezak's legendary split from Beijing as the fastest split in history, to secure gold and snap the United States' win streak in the event. Pan skipped the 2024 Short Course Worlds, but he participated in the World Cup, where he flexed his range by swimming a World Cup and Chinese record in the 800 freestyle (7:35.50). He also swam a Chinese record in the 200 freestyle (1:41.59) and lifetime bests in the 400 freestyle (3:36.43) and 100 IM (51.78).
• Bobby Finke, United States: Bobby Finkeplayed the hero for the American men's Olympic roster in the last individual event of the meet—the men's 1500 freestyle. No American man had won an individual Olympic gold in Paris and Finke was the team's last chance to avoid snapping a century-long streak of American men winning individual gold in at least one event at every Olympics the nation attended. Finke saved the streak and did so in historic fashion, breaking Sun Yang's world record in the men's 1500 freestyle and defending his Olympic title from Tokyo. Finke switched up his strategy to do so; rather than hanging with the field and unleashing a monstrous final 50 meters, Finke attacked the race from the start, daring the field to go out with him. No one could, and Finke led the final from start to finish as he powered to a 14:30.67, breaking Sun's 12-year-old world record by .35 seconds and the second individual world record of the meet. Earlier, Finke was on the podium in the 800 freestyle, clocking a 7:38.75 for silver.

Past Winners:

• 2023 Swammy – Qin Haiyang (CHN)
• 2022 Swammy – David Popovici (ROU)
• 2021 Swammy – Caeleb Dressel (USA)
• 2020 Swammy – Caeleb Dressel (USA)
• 2019 Swammy – Caeleb Dressel (USA)
• 2018 Swammy – Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS)
• 2017 Swammy – Caeleb Dressel (USA)
• 2016 Swammy – Michael Phelps (USA)
• 2015 Swammy – Adam Peaty (GBR)
• 2014 Swammy – Chad Le Clos (RSA)
• 2013 Swammy – Chad Le Clos (RSA)

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