Nine months ago, Léon Marchand blew away the field in the 400-meter individual medley at the 2024 Olympics, the first leg of the loudest breakout in the Paris Games. He had less fortune in Fort Lauderdale on Friday.
In his first meet since winning four gold medals in his native country, Marchand was edged by Bobby Finke in the 400-meter IM at a Tyr Pro Series meet, losing by 0.19 seconds on a dramatic last-lap comeback by the American.
Bobby Finke's final-50 skills are unreal 😨#TYRProSeries pic.twitter.com/1m8jDyWyfG
— USA Swimming (@USASwimming) May 3, 2025
Marchand was significantly trailing after the butterfly and backstroke legs, but dominated the breaststroke enough to hold a small lead heading into the freestyle.
Before anyone starts speculating on the 22-year-old Marchand losing a step, it's worth noting that he has dealt with shoulder and rib injuries since the Olympics and only recently started training with coach Bob Bowman again, per SwimSwam. He also swam the 200-meter freestyle earlier Friday.
Per Fox 40, Finke was happy about that:
"I was just very thankful Leon had the 200 before," Finke said.
Finke is an Olympic star in his own right, with three gold medals and a silver to his name between the 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics. He was the only American man to taste individual gold at the Games last year, and has made a career of dramatic comebacks.
He was not in the 400-meter IM field in Paris, though.
