Swimming champions who are less physically massive than ten years ago: Léon Marchand, David Popovici or Pan Zhanle

For any swimming enthusiast, whether a simple viewer looking for their dose of sport in the middle of summer, or a humble journalist covering the competition, the Singapore World Championships are a chance to question their own lifestyle. For eight days, the athletes parade through the city-state's Sports Hub, tall, toned, with broad shoulders and imposing muscles ripped with exertion. On closer inspection, however, some bodies, slimmer than in the past, reveal a recent evolution among the world's best swimmers.

Léon Marchand and David Popovici , who are coming in as favorites for the 200m medley final for the former and the 100m freestyle final – the main event – for the latter, embody this new wave. The Frenchman (1.87m, 77kg), the Romanian (1.90m, 80kg) and the Chinese Pan Zhanle (1.90m, 80kg), who all won gold at the Paris Olympic Games, have profiles that contrast with those of their predecessors, the Americans Michael Phelps (1.93m, 90kg) and Caeleb Dressel (1.91m, 88kg) or the Frenchman Alain Bernard (1.96m, 95kg) among others.

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