Throwback to Leon Marchand's 4:02.50 WR in the 400m IM at Fukuoka 2023! 🏊‍♂️🔥 Eyes on Paris 2024!

It's a wonderful field here for the men's 400m individual medley. Carson Foster, one of two Americans there, the defending champion. Kalish is in lane 7, but all eyes on Léon Marchand, the star youngster from France, who is looking to take down a Michael Phelps world record. Yeah, he blew away the field last year in Budapest, going a time of 4.04.2. This morning in the heat, he was quicker than that split time through the first 200m. But we do have a really deep field of strong butterfly and backstrokers, so they are looking to go out with Léon Marchand. There he is in the white cap. The Frenchman, Foster, as well, really strong through the fly and the backstroke. So, these two are clearing out early. Now, Léon Marchand, he's got a much improved backstroking split, largely due to how good he is underwater. They're ahead of that Phelps world record so far, 54.6. Look at this underwater from Marchand, in that white cap going nice and deep, staying under the water longer than Foster and surfacing with about a half body length lead. And he's a quarter of a second under world record pace in the early stages in this second leg, the backstroke, the breaststroke and the freestyle to come. It's Marchand in lane 5 who leads Foster in second place. We'll keep our eyes on the defending champion or the Olympic champion, Kalish, in lane number 7. He's got a lot of work to do at the moment. It's the yellow lanes in front and they're still under world record pace. It's Marchand in front of Foster. Yeah, look how good those underwaters are. 12 metres underwater in a Horned IM. That is unreal. Foster's really pushing him and this might be exactly what Marchand needs to do in almighty time. The backstroke is actually his weakest of the four strokes. So, it's impressive that he's shading that world record line at the moment. He's just starting to get away from him. That's all right because last year in Budapest, his breaststroke split was three seconds quicker than that of Phelps. He's only 0.1 over that world record mark. They have cleared out on the rest of the field, Marchand and Foster. Claiborne would be holding down third. He's swimming out of lane 8 for New Zealand. Kalish is on his right shoulder but it's all about the yellow lanes at the moment. It is still Marchand who leads from Foster and he's looking pretty strong but he can't shake Foster's challenge off. No, Foster's putting in a great performance so far in this one. He's right there and Marchand is edging ahead of that world record mark. He is the number one swimmer in the world in the 200 breaststroke so that just shows you how elite he is in that individual stroke. 0.7 under world record now. That was a 33.8 breaststroke split from Leon Marchand. It's going to come down to the wire, Marchand, in front of Foster and Michael Phelps is watching on, wondering, hoping to see his world record stay on the books and it might just do that but it may not as well because he's sitting right out in front by a length under this world record pace. We'll get an idea as they go through the 300 but Lee is going to smash this world record if he keeps going like this. Two and three quarter seconds under world record pace. This is history in the making. Leon Marchand of France. Unbelievable breaststroke split there. 107 low again. He has streaked the field and Marchand with a big six-peat kick behind him. He's got the ability to not only break the world record but absolutely destroy it. That's the world mark from Phelps. It's starting to close but Marchand with some desperation. Let's see how long he can stay under off this turn. He's got less than 50 to go. That is Marchand in front. The world record line a distant second and then it's Foster and then it's Kalish who's moved into third placing but this is a remarkable swim. This 21-year-old Frenchman, Leon Marchand. He is about to dethrone Michael Phelps in the record books. The longest record in the books. The last individual record for Phelps and Marchand has taken it in 4.02.5. A magical swim. Foster the silver and the bronze will go the way of Seto.