Leon Marchand will live this Wednesday a day that he will remember for a long time. Just returned from Budapest Worlds monday he won two gold medals in the 400 meter medley and 200 meter medley, and a silver medal in the 200 meter butterfly, the Toulousain is received at the Capitol on Wednesday noon by the mayor of the city. Before giving a press conference at the end of the day.
For France Blue Occitania, Alain Bernard, double Olympic champion 100 meters freestyle in 2008 in Beijing and the 4 times 100 meters relay in London in 2012, now a consultant, looks back on the incredible World Championships of Léon Marchand at only 20 years old. According to Alain Bernard, the young Toulousain, licensed to the Dauphins du Toec, has good years ahead of him under certain conditions. Maintenance.
Alain Bernard, did you vibrate in front of the Worlds and the performance of Léon Marchand?
Downright ! I had “hair”. We vibrate all the more when we know the work that such a performance represents. Even if what we did ten or fifteen years ago, it has necessarily evolved. It is surely even more demanding today. But yes, it makes us vibrate. When you’re French and you have a swimmer in the final, you just want him to touch first. I think I’m like any other spectator who vibrates behind with our French champions, whether individual or collective sport.
In your opinion, we have really witnessed the emergence of a phenomenon? Or are you telling us that we have to be right, that he is only 20 years old and that we still have to give him time?
It is certain that his performances were beyond all expectations. They even surprised his trainer and his entourage. We knew that Léon had real abilities, but frankly, he really turned a corner by asserting himself with panache like that in a world final, breaking the French record and sometimes the second best world performance of all time on a 400 meter medley. He is a boy who has grown enormously in recent years. It’s a bit like the realization of all his years of training in Toulouse where he has been immersed in a sporting family since childhood with his dad who was vice-world champion, whom I had the chance to know very well and to rub shoulders. All the markers are green so he can express himself and I think he can be proud of his results. But he obviously has his sights set on the upcoming Olympics. He can really rely on a relatively long career and that’s what he’s going to have to manage, to understand.
His American trainer Bob Bowman, one of his trainers with Nicolas Castel, who trained Michael Phelps, even went so far as to say that he would be stronger than the one who is still presented as the greatest swimmer of all. time. Does that sound plausible to you?
Considering what he showed in a 400 meter medley, I think he is doing much better. The real strength of Michael Phelps is that he was versatile. If Bob Bowman says that, he really means it. We must not forget that Michael Phelps was still fifth in the Olympics at the age of fifteen. He had an extremely long, extremely dense career. He revolutionized the world of swimming. I think that Léon is part of this duration, but because he also knew, once again, to benefit from a really very solid apprenticeship which allowed him to be there. Today, it’s been less than ten months training in the United States and it’s true that there are many laurels that go to Bowman. Now, we must not forget the work of Nicolas Castel who trained him with the Toulouse club. So yes, of course, to go a step further, he decided to move to the United States. I think it’s great, but there’s a very small thing that bothers me in there, which is why we are not able to keep a swimmer of this level there on our national territory when we have the sporting resources to do so from a technical point of view. What concerns me is that there is no support for post-baccalaureate studies that can be easily arranged. Even if we know that in Toulouse, there is still a very important pool of post-baccalaureate facilities for high-level athletes. It’s still very disparate across the country.
Is that why Léon left for the United States, in your opinion, for this university course where, indeed, we know that athletes are put in the best possible conditions?
I think it’s also for a change of scenery. It gives a second wind to his career. It’s his choice and he did very well to do it if he felt he had to do it. On the other hand, I remain convinced that we lose enormous potential around the age of 18 or 20 on young people who have not managed to perform at that age and who also find it difficult to take this enormous risk. to put their studies on hold to move towards a career as a high-level but not professional swimmer. And I weigh my words because the status of professional swimmer does not exist. Now, there you go, he’s going to start reaping all the fruits of his labor since he was little, with surely sponsorship, communications, interviews, partners, the media, a lot of extra sporting things to manage. And I think he will be relatively calm to prepare for the United States. Because in France, it’s true that we have this culture of waiting for the nugget that comes out, of seeing her at the slightest swimming meeting and if, one day, she swims 4/100 less well than her best time, immediately we will say that she is not in good shape. So I think he will be calm enough to prepare there and that is probably part of the plan he has planned. Leon blew us away and frankly, it’s amazing.
Especially in view of the next Olympic Games in France in 2024 where all French athletes will be extremely expected. The idea is to take some pressure off?
Here is the fact of removing a little pressure without removing any ambition. And I think all the subtlety is there and all the athletes are carried by the Olympic Games. Swimming is one of the flagship sports of the Olympic Games. And it’s true that the fact that it’s happening in France only happens once in a lifetime. And I think they also have despite everything a pressure that puts themselves to achieve their own goals, with their respective coaches, their respective staff. On the other side of the Atlantic, he will be able to walk in the street a little more calmly than in France and be less disturbed. This can allow him to focus on his development.
For you, he will be the French swimmer to follow at the next Olympiad. It will perhaps even be one of the stars of the French delegation?
In two years, a lot can happen. Now we wonder what can happen to him. He has to manage to keep this motivation. It is this desire, the maturity he has acquired, which can help him to be even more curious to know how he can swim ever faster. And we also have a younger generation coming up behind. We will wait for the summer championships on European championships, world junior championships where there are still some beautiful swimmers who point the tip of their noses. We hope to enhance this French team before it enters its Olympic Games. There is still a factor that Leon was able to grasp with the one-year postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. I am convinced that he has matured in the meantime and that, perhaps, he would have been barely qualified in 2020. In 2021, he qualified, he made a final, he set his best times , so he gained international experience in his first competitions for the France team. It is certain that this experience that he acquired last year in Tokyo, it is necessarily useful to him. And then, he fully assumes his role, of being the one who actually sets the tempo in a world final, and that’s really nice to see.
Since we are talking about the next 2024 Olympics in Paris, which we are all waiting for, what medal objective can Léon Marchand set for himself, according to you, Alain Bernard?
I don’t like predictions at all. I don’t want to talk about predictions. I want to ensure that we can be fulfilled, that he can be in the best possible conditions. And if today, the best dispositions are found across the Atlantic with Bob Bowman, that’s extraordinary, that’s excellent. Once again, with his entourage, this culture of sport in his family, between his dad and his uncle who are very high level swimmers, his mother who is also a swimmer, Léon is necessarily surrounded by good points of reference, good advice, without copy, but to make its own way. That’s great. At this age, to have this maturity at 20 years old. It suggests a very long career. Afterwards, beyond the results, of course we want medals. We want a title, we want to play on the highest steps of the podium. But I think it’s pretty much a given. This is everyone’s wish, even top athletes in France.