PHELPS STILL ‘GREEDY’ TO HOLD ON TO HIS LAST REMAINING WORLD RECORD

OLYMPIC great Michael Phelps said he was “greedy” to hold on to his one remaining individual swimming world record faced with the threat of “hungry kid” Leon Marchand.

Marchand is not far off the 400 IM world record Phelps has held for two decades and trains with the Americans’ long-time coach Bob Bowman.

The 20-year-old French swimmer posted the second-fastest men’s 400m medley time in history, with 4min 4.28sec to win the world gold in Budapest in August. “Leon is one to watch,” Phelps, 37, said at the “Demain Le Sport” (Sports Tomorrow) event in Paris.

“He’s just a hungry little kid, he’s eager to be the best, to break the world record, and obviously he’s within a couple of tenths of it, so...

“But hopefully, fingers crossed, I’m going to be greedy and try and keep the record for one more year to go to 21 years.”

Phelps first broke that record with 4:11.09 in Fort Lauderdale in August 2002, and lowered it for the last time 04:03.84 on his way to gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. “Time will tell. He’s definitely equipped with a lot of tools,” continued Phelps, who holds the all-time records for Olympic medals with 28, of which 23 are gold.

“He’s such a great racer. He reminds me a lot of myself with the competitiveness when you get into it – kind of dogfight in a race. “I’m looking forward to seeing, not only what he does at the world championships next year, but also what he does here in Paris (Olympics).”