Career
Leveaux is the current world record holder in the 100 m freestyle (short course – 4494 sec). He formerly held the world records in the 50 m freestyle (short course – 2048 sec) and the 50 m butterfly (short course – 2218 sec). He also held the national record in the 200 m freestyle (long course – 1:4654).
Up to 2003, Leveaux competed in the junior categories, and was runner-up in the 100 m freestyle and the 100 m butterfly in the European Championships in Glasgow in 2003.
Having previously dominated the French junior championships, Leveaux took the silver in the 50 m butterfly event in the French open championship in 2003 held in Saint-Étienne. In the individual 200 m freestyle event, Leveaux came in fifth, breaking his first French record with 1 minimum 48.80 seconds.
Three months later, Leveaux competed on the relay team in the Athens games, in the 4×100 and 4 × 200 m freestyle events. Although the team failed to qualify for the final in the 4×100 m, the team came in seventh place in the 4 × 200 m.
Leveaux was the runner-up in the 100 m freestyle at the 2005 French National Championships, and participated in the World Championships in Montréal in July, he qualified for the final in the 100 m freestyle, but came in at eighth place.
At the French national championships, Leveaux managed to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 50 m and 200 m freestyle events. Finishing fifth in the 100 m, he also qualified for the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay team He set an Olympic record in the 100 m freestyle in the heats of the relay after leading official
Later in the week, Leveaux set an Olympic record in his preliminary 50 m freestyle heat with a time of 21.46 seconds.
In the final of that event, he swam even faster (2145 seconds) but finished behind Brazil"s César Cielo Filho to take the silver medal. After a couple of years spent in far from his best form, Amaury Leveaux made a come back at the 2012 European Championship in Debrecen (Hungary).
At the 2012 Olympics in London, he was the lead swimmer of the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, winning gold with team mates Fabien Gilot, Clement Lefert and Yannick Agnel, and of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, winning silver. At the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona, he earned a gold medal after swimming in the heats of the 4 × 100 m freestyle but was not included in the team for the final.
In December 2013, at age 28, he announced his retirement from competitive swimming.