Triple World Champion Leon Marchand is a pro! He is done with NCAA swimming, and he leaves the college ranks as potentially the greatest college swimmer ever.
Shortly after Marchand lead ASU to their 2024 NCAA Championship Team Title, coach Bob Bowman announced he would be taking the head coaching position at the University of Texas in Austin, and Marchand confirmed he would follow Bowman to Austin.
In this video, Marchand discusses the pressures of the Olympic Games and competing in his home country. He also discusses potentially swimming the 200 butterfly / 200 breaststroke double at the Paris Olympics.
LEON MARCHAND FRENCH OLYMPIC “TRIALS” PREDICTION:
Does Marchand rest or shave? Does he need to? Does it matter? I don’t think it matters. He swims fast all the time.
At FRENCH Trials Leon swims…
- 200 fly – 1:52.6
- 200 breast – 2:06.1
- 200 IM – 1:55.5
- 400 IM – I don’t know. I think he swims to win only. At the 2023 French Trials he turned in a 4:10. I see a 4:06.9 at French Olympic Trials.
At the Olympic Games will Marchand swim the 200 fly/200 breast double? I certainly hope so. It would be brutal, but he’s got the talent and the home crowd support to win both. If he goes for it, it’ll be a fight, very tight races… But who cares what I think? It’s really all about what you think. Drop your comments below.
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
long time swimswam reader, first time commenter.
200 fly is interesting. Every Olympic cycle there’s a younger swimmer that out-performs everybody’s expectations and Kharun and Heilman are looking like they might be those swimmers
Not saying they’ll beat Milak, who’s downfall has probably been overexaggerated, but If Marchand does the double… it’ll be a dogfight for bronze and silver
God i’m so excited for paris
wait 200 fly is before the 200 breast…
idk hopefully Heilman or Kharun do something crazy so I look less stupid
This may have already been discussed but what if Marchand swims to simply win the 400IM since he has a decent amount of room for error and save himself for the 200 IM/Breast/Fly? I wonder if that will be the strategy.
I think he will swim it to win. I’m not sure, but I feel like MP did that in 2008, he was taking on the most ambitious meet of all time and said he wasn’t that tired at the end.
He also wasn’t dolphin kicking like he did in 2007 on that last 100. In Melbourne he took four kicks and eight kicks on the last two walls. In Beijing he took ZERO kicks and four kicks.
Hopefully that’s what McIntosh does as well in the 400IM
That’s what Lochte did in London on the first day, and that’s why his last 50 split was the slowest in the final, and even slower than Ye Shiwen’s.
But the 200 back and 200 IM prelims, semis, and final and on the same days was too much for him. If only he had not swum 200 back, he’d have won 200 IM.
Everyone thought he shut it down at first, but he actually just died lol. He followed that pattern for the entire meet. Died in the 4×100 free relay, died in the 200 free (twice), and died in the 200 Back.
Some think he overtrained, I think he was just getting older though.
Mel, Do you remember interviewing
Michael Phelps at the Santa Clara Invitational 2008 after he won the 100 free, 200IM, and the 100 back beating Piersol and Grevers all within an hour?
I still get giddy thinking of that moment in time. You were giddy. Michael said he didn’t think he would pull the backstroke off, but he said he was stoked after doing it. That was amazing.
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I’ll go out on a limb:
Alex Shackell – W 200 FL
something tells me that limb is gonna break
As a Marchand fan I hope he sticks to the 200 breaststroke and scratches the 200 fly. He’s not going to be winning a medal with my kings Heilman and Kharun there 😍😍
You’re more worried about Heilman and Kharun than the WR holder? Don’t get me wrong, those two teens are going places, and they are certainly medal threats in Paris, but Milak is the one that will be hardest for Marchand to beat.
200 breast also has the brand new WR holder and the second fastest man ever.
I think Leon will loose both. “Only” the podium could be a realistic target.
When March and swam that 200 breast PB, he was untapered. I know he can beat Haiyang on the 200 breast
A clean Haiyang yes
Maybe Leon will take a pass on the 2 breast on competing against a known doper
The World record holder who’s PBs is two seconds faster than Marchands…
Tbh I’m very excited to see what those two have in store for Paris. Kharun is 2 years older than Heilman, so I don’t see him as a threat to Marchand right now, or in the near future – he also still hasn’t entered the transfer portal, so he is by all means currently coachless. Heilman on the other hand is definitely going to break Milak’s official WJR this year, and maybe even his actual WJR, which is a second faster than the official.
Won’t be happened.
Milak will win it as everybody should know.
marchand should give up 200 breast because qin is so powerful
In this case he sould give up both.
But.. that means Bob Bowman’s contemptible action of changing Olympics schedule is all for nothing?
No, I hope Marchand swim both 200 breast and fly and will get beaten by ZSC and Milak as karma for Bob.
Honestly that interview in the video made it seem like he will do the double
Chuppy will cook him in 2 breast anyways
Cook him at doping
Since when ZSC was doping?
I’m just making things up atp 😭
I thought it was assumed he was going for it since Bowman changed the schedule for him..
The main advantage of the schedule change is it gives him the flexibility to attempt the double if he wants to. Doing the double could still be a gametime decision where if he does super well in the 400 IM and feels great he can go ahead and do it, but if his 400 IM doesn’t go too well or he feels more fatigued from it he can scratch an event that day and just focus on one. That doesn’t necessarily mean he needs to do the double but it increases flexibility for him
Something about scratching an event at the Olympics just feels…poor taste, disappointing, squandering a once in the lifetime opportunity? I’d hope he doesn’t