Léon Marchand left the pink city after the Tokyo Olympics to settle in the suburbs of Phoenix in Arizona. He wears since the colors ofarizona state university and he has already put American swimming at his feet. This weekend, the Toulousain achieved the second fastest time in history in 400 yards medley, during an important American university competition.
Between two basins, Léon Marchand landed to tell us about his first months spent in the western United States.
“It’s like in the movies”
“The sky is always blue, we swim outside so it’s really cool. I’m always in shorts and flip flops.” Léon Marchand has an infectious smile on the other end of the phone, and that’s good enough. Already because he has become perfectly acclimatized to American life: “It’s going really well, it’s gone very quickly from the start. I have to learn the language, get by in class in addition to the two training sessions a day. I’m much more independent than before. The campus is gigantic, the swimming pools are two minutes from my room. _It’s a bit like what you see in the movies, with 70,000 students and everyone wearing the colors of ASU_. The first few weeks, you still say to yourself: did I make the right choice? There is always this little questioning because I was still good in Toulouse. But after you say to yourself I want to stay in fact. The only negative point is my family who is on the other side of the planet”, loose the 19-year-old swimmer who planned to stay for a four-year lease in the United States. The time to complete his computer studies in parallel with his swimming career.
– Leon Marchand
He (already) breaks records
Léon Marchand had to adapt to the American pools but according to the times, it didn’t take long : “We swim in yards. In Toulouse, I swam in deep water and there, we are in pools of 25 yards. So 23 meters or so. I really improved because at the beginning the landmarks were complicated. I I didn’t even wonder if I had progressed and inevitably with all the turns, all the laps that we do, we improve. We did a big university competition in the fall and I had the best time in the United States. United in the 400m medley and 200m medley.”
Friday March 4, Léon Marchand shone during the “Pac-12”, university competition: he achieved the second fastest time in history in the 400y medley and became the 7th performer in history on the 200y medley in 3’34”45.
The Bowman Method
In Arizona, Léon Marchand works under the orders of the master in the field, Bob Bowman. The emblematic coach who made Michael Phelps a legend (28 Olympic medals, record in the history of the Games). “He has always supervised internationals so he is careful when he speaks, he articulates. I also explained to him that I wanted to continue working with Nicolas Castel (sporting director of the Dauphins du Toec) so that it would be more of a collaboration between the two Of course he understood. The workouts are really adapted for what I want to do, it’s very specialized. I find it great.”
Nicolas Castel, precisely, went to see Léon Marchand in the United States last January. And he saw a difference: “Physically he has already evolved a bit and technically there are things that have changed. It’s not radical because he was already a very good swimmer but Bob Bowman has put his finger on little things that seem really interesting . I see him swimming fast so that suggests he can do great things” rejoices Nicolas Castel.
Léon Marchand will return to Europe in the spring to compete in the world championships in June and then the European championships in August. With the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in sight: “It will be a crazy competition I think. On French soil as well. The objective is to claim a medal there, it’s just excitement.”