“He is a swimmer who is out of the ordinary”, greets the president of the French Swimming Federation

“He is a swimmer who, aquatically, is really out of the ordinary compared to others.“, greeted on July 23 on franceinfo Gilles Sezionale president of the French Swimming Federation (FFN), after the new world record for the 400 m medley, established by the Frenchman Léon Marchand, beating the previous record of Michael Phelps, 15 years old. The world champion achieved “something extraordinary“, estimates the boss of the FFN. Gilles Sezionale underlines the progress of Léon Marchand that he sees well”swim at very high performancefor the 2024 Paris Olympics.

VIDEO. Relive the historic race of Léon Marchand, crowned world champion in the 400m medley

franceinfo: How did you react to this new exploit by Léon Marchand?

Gilles Segionale, President of the French Swimming Federation: This is in line with what Léon has been doing to us for some time now. He is already world champion. He reconfirmed. We hold the world record, but Léon is such an alien in swimming that everyone was waiting for this record to fall. And the circle is complete. Léon, training with Bob Bowman (trainer of Michael Phelps), after being trained by Nicolas Castel at the Dauphins du Toec (in Toulouse). And there, today, it’s wonderful to see him with Phelps who is with him on the podium. We can only really appreciate having this great champion who raises the hand of the new champion. It is the oldest world record that has fallen. And it’s something extraordinary to see Phelps, who is a swimming legend, raising his arm for Leon. That’s wonderful.

Did you expect to see Léon Marchand arrive so quickly at this level?

He has a pretty dazzling progression. When he left France for the United States, he swam at around 4’10”. At the Olympics, he was in this progression. Then, at the world championships, he became double world champion in the 200m and 400m medley. We went from a swimmer who was 4’09”, 4’10”, to 4’04”. Everyone was waiting for that because it is in the logic of his progression. We saw the season he had this winter in all the competitions at his university. Nothing is guaranteed in this sport. But it’s true that Léon is so extraordinary. And he did. And now maybe he’ll set even more goals.

How can we explain his level of performance?

Leon is an absolutely fabulous swimmer in the water. Compared to Phelps, he does not have quite the same size. Let’s be honest. Afterwards, it’s really technical. He smashes Phelps’ record. I think he’s a swimmer, in terms of technique, who is extraordinary. We can clearly see on his flows, on everything he does, it’s perfect. He is a swimmer who, aquatically, is really out of the ordinary compared to others. He is not a power swimmer. It’s not necessarily the biggest size. But technically, he progressed enormously with Bob Bowman. And even though Bob is the e-coach for the American team, most of the time he is with the French team. And we see all that he can bring to a swimmer who has been more than very well trained. We see all that it could bring to him to be with Bob. In a year and a few, he is a swimmer who has won almost eight seconds. It’s monstrous.

There are other big events to come. The biggest is in a year in Paris with the Olympic Games. For you, is there no doubt that he will be one of the great French heroes of these Games?

I wish him and I wish him. In Paris, the program means that he will be able to do all four races. We can only wish him, and hope for French swimming that he is this standard bearer. Because it would be extraordinary if he managed to achieve these four races. We are not going to put the cart before the horse. The program will allow him to do the 200m and the 400m medley, the 200m breaststroke and the 200 butterfly. So that’s four races, plus the relays. And this is where we also see all his recovery, to manage to chain the races. With all the winter season he did in the United States, we saw that he was able to swim at very high performance in a lot of races.