Marchand still the home hero in Paris as new record breakers emerge

PARIS, Aug 17 : Leon Marchand remained the home hero two years on from the Paris Olympics but swimming's European championships, which ended at the weekend, saw the emergence of new world record breakers to challenge the Americans and Australians.

Italy's Sara Curtis, who turns 20 this week, twice smashed the 50m backstroke record on her way to gold in Paris last week and Germany's Johannes Liebmann, also 19, knocked almost four seconds off American Bobby Finke's 2024 time in the men's 1,500 freestyle.

Curtis's 26.63 and 26.56 seconds, beating the previous best of 26.86 by Australian Kaylee McKeown, was the first time since 2009 that a European had held the world record in the event. The last time a European man held the 1,500 world record was 1992.

Curtis, who swims for the University of Virginia and looks a hot prospect for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, ended up with six medals - a gold, two silvers and three bronzes - from six races as Italy won the most medals (20) and finished second in the table with six golds to Britain's eight.

The 50m backstroke, a regular event at world championships, will be an Olympic discipline for the first time in 2028.

Europeans hold 16 of swimming's 42 world records, with the rest in the hands of North Americans, Australians and Chinese.

Four-times 2024 Olympic gold medallist Marchand, world record holder in the 200m and 400m Individual Medley, maintained his gold standard with two continental titles in Paris - the 200m butterfly and 400m freestyle. 

Marchand dropped events involving the breaststroke due to a thigh injury but beat Germany's world record holder Lukas Martens in the 400 free, an event the Frenchman rarely races.  

Lithuania's women's 50m breaststroke world record holder Ruta