Meet Léon Marchand, the 'French Michael Phelps' ready to rule his home Olympics (2024)

Follow our Olympics coveragein the lead-up to the Paris Games.

AUSTIN, Texas — Bob Bowman’s office is sparsely decorated, the coach still so new to his job at the University of Texas that his desk remains totally empty. But Bowman has put a few trophies and books up on his bookshelves, and he’s hung a few prized possessions on the walls. There are team photos from previous college stops and various Olympic Games.

And there are two framed photographs that stick out most of all. The first is a collage of eight pictures of Michael Phelps holding the eight gold medals he won in Beijing in 2008. Its inscription refers to Phelps as the greatest Olympian of all time, noting the seven world records set at those Games.

Below that frame is one that’s much newer and just a smidge bigger. It’s a photo of Bowman’s newest protégé, Léon Marchand, taken the moment he realized he’d broken the world record in the men’s 400-meter individual medley last summer in f*ckuoka, Japan. That had been the last remaining Phelps world record — and Marchand obliterated it by nearly a second and a half.

“I was ready for it to happen,” Bowman admitted. “And, actually, was glad that the year before he had gotten really close (to breaking it), so that it wasn’t a shock for Michael, to be honest. He had a year to kind of get it together.”

Phelps congratulated Marchand in person afterward. He also told him, I think you can go faster.

Now, another year later, all parties are readying for what should be a spectacular home Olympics for the 22-year-old Frenchman. Marchand has been dubbed the “French Michael Phelps” because of two inextricably linked facts — he trains with the man who famously coached Phelps his entire career, and he swims the same events.

“Obviously, everybody sees the similarities,” said U.S. swimmer Chase Kalisz, who trained with Phelps and now trains with Marchand. “I don’t think Léon sees himself as someone who needs to live up to the standard that Michael set. I think he’s really good at blazing his own trail and pushing what his limits are. I don’t really ever get the sense that he’s trying to fill Michael’s shoes in any regard.

“No one is ever going to be Michael. But this tiny little French kid who’s got a completely different personality than Michael did and a completely different approach to swimming as Michael did — he gets the same results.”

It is funny to think that each of these men has been the absolute best in the world at the same event, the grueling 400-meter individual medley. Phelps’ 6-foot-4 frame and 79-inch wingspan gave him the look of a body engineered in a lab to excel at swimming. Marchand is 6-foot-2 and weighs 170 pounds; he can much more easily blend into a crowd of non-elite athletes. And still he dominates the medley events, and he’ll be the heavy favorite in the 400 IM in Paris. He will swim that Sunday, the second day of competition at Paris La Défense Arena. He is also entered in the 200-meter breaststroke, the 200-meter butterfly and the 200-meter individual medley. He took home gold in three events (the 200 fly, the 200 IM and the 400 IM) last year at world championships in Japan.

Expectations were always going to be high for Marchand heading into a home Olympic Games, but they’re approaching astronomical levels now that it’s finally here. Marchand is grateful that he has Bowman by his side as he walks into an environment that few others have experienced; Bowman will serve as an assistant coach for the French national team, so he’ll be with Marchand the entire meet.

“The main thing is just getting prepared in the water — the main thing is just swimming as fast as possible,” Marchand said. “But it’s also not only about swimming when it’s a home Olympics.”

The email landed in Bowman’s inbox rather unexpectedly but also rather uneventfully in May 2020. Bowman couldn’t have possibly known in that moment, as he sat on the sofa in his office at Arizona State, where it would lead.

Dear sir, I am a French swimmer, my name is Léon Marchand (18 years old). I would like to join the university of Arizona State in summer 2021 for swim and compete in NCAA with your amazing team. Do you think I could benefit from a scholarship? What level of education is. Required? (TOEFL, SAT …) You will find attached my presentation sheet. Thank you for the time granted to my request.
Sportingly, Léon

“I knew that name,” Bowman said. “I knew his dad was a good swimmer.”

Xavier Marchand was a two-time Olympian whose best event was the 200 IM. As it turned out, he’d married a fellow Olympic swimmer, Céline Bonnet, and they’d had a son who had set the French national record in the 400 IM and compiled an impressive list of age group records, as well.

So, Bowman replied, thanking Léon Marchand for reaching out and expressing strong interest in Marchand joining the burgeoning Sun Devil swim program, which Bowman was trying to build into a national powerhouse essentially from scratch. Bowman wrote back that he had “a particular fondness for the 400 IM!” and asked to set up a time to video conference.

The call took place a few days later, and Bowman surprised the Marchands by speaking French at the start. (He had previously spent time living in France.) By the end of their conversation, both sides felt good about the other. Marchand committed to ASU that September, paving the way for a relationship that led to 10 NCAA titles in three seasons.

The two didn’t meet in person until the Tokyo Olympics. Marchand, then 19, swam in three individual events and one relay, with his best performance a sixth-place finish in the 400 IM.

“I went to Tokyo just (hoping) to make a final,” Marchand said. “I was just happy to participate.”

Bowman liked what he saw from Marchand’s technique. All four strokes — butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle — were excellent, and he had a quickness about him. Bowman knew he could improve Marchand’s strength and endurance because he was also just “a tiny little dude.” He didn’t know yet how good Marchand would kick underwater, but he’d find out soon enough. The biggest drops in time Marchand has had since he began working with Bowman have been in the first 15 meters of every lap underwater. (“I really like the silence down there,” Marchand said. “I’ve always been really comfortable underwater.”)

Marchand admits now that he’d wanted to go to Cal. That was his top choice. He only sent emails to other coaches and other schools when things didn’t look good. He’s grateful now for the way it all worked out, that he’d get to pair up with the coach behind the greatest of all time — and that Bowman happened to be right at his laptop, able to respond quickly.

“It was perfect timing,” said Marchand, who was so excited about the possibility that he hardly slept that night.

The little boy who had quit swimming for two years because the water was too cold was well on his way to Olympic glory.

Early in their time together, Bowman taught Marchand the importance of having a routine. You don’t leave anything to chance. You do the same thing, over and over again.

So, all the way back in 2020, Bowman gave Marchand a new warmup routine that was actually an old warmup routine. It previously belonged to Phelps. It’s an 800-meter mixer (changing strokes throughout), 600 kicking, 400 pulling and 200 IM drill, followed by a series of 25-meter bursts to get each stroke ready.

“I don’t time any of it,” Bowman said. “I’ll watch it, maybe give a little stroke tip or something. But basically, it’s just something they do. More than anything else, it’s just a decision doesn’t have to be made. It’s like Steve Jobs wearing a black shirt and jeans every day, right? You try to find as many of those things as you can.”

There is one slight difference: Marchand begins his warmup an hour before his race and goes. Phelps would do the warmup 90 minutes before race time, get out, put his suit on, and then get back in the water 30 minutes before he’d race. Marchand doesn’t like to get cold, so he likes to warm up once and go.

“It’s really simple, but it works,” Marchand said.

That routine is a huge part of Bowman’s approach to Paris. He’s trying to control what he can so Marchand can focus on swimming and not on being the French face of the Games. They’ve got the post-race routine down pat, too. Marchand has worked with a mental health coach over the past few years as he’s emerged as one of the world’s elite swimmers, but that has been especially helpful in the lead-up to this.

Bowman has also told Marchand he’s got to say no. He can’t sign hundreds of autographs every time there’s a crowd or do a ton of interviews just because he’s nice. He’s got to prioritize himself and his routine. He needs to be his usual even-keeled self in the most high-pressure environments. That’s another area where Bowman is reminded of Phelps.

“Michael was like a machine,” Bowman said. “Léon is not a machine, but he’s pretty close. He warms up and knows what he’s going to do. I don’t do anything during that whole process except be there.”

And he will be there on the pool deck. Bowman decided to join the French staff so he could continue working with Marchand directly. He’d always thought he’d do it because Marchand would be such a big star in Paris, but it’s also logistically easier this way. Team France will allow him to coach his elite American swimmers from afar.

“The first thing he told me when I got (to Arizona State) was that he wanted to take me to the Olympics in Paris,” Marchand said. “That’s been the goal. He’s perfect for what I want to do, which is have really high ambitions.”

The way Marchand sees it, there’s not much to worry about. The work is already done. He’s endured the long, punishing workouts required to swim the sport’s most grueling race. He said knowing that has taken quite a bit of pressure off his shoulders already.

Kalisz said the timing of Marchand’s rise has been helpful for all of this. Phelps last swam competitively in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. All of his world records have been broken. He’s a giant who still towers above the sport — and will be part of the NBC broadcast during these Games — but it’s been eight years since he was in the water.

“I think it’s good for him that he’s a little more removed from Michael than previous swimmers,” said Kalisz, who would certainly know what that feels like. He sees a softer Bowman now, too, coaching Marchand in a completely different way than he did Phelps. Phelps needed to be challenged and screamed at sometimes; Marchand would never respond well to that kind of approach. That’s part of the magic as well, that people evolve and change and be who they need to be for different people.

And if this pairing works its magic, then Léon Marchand will be exactly what he needs to be at precisely the right time for his home country.

“I’m just very lucky to be part of it,” Marchand said, smiling.

(Top photo of Léon Marchand celebrating a gold medal at the 2023 world championships with Michael Phelps: DBM / Insidefoto / Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

Nicole Auerbach covers college football and college basketball for The Athletic. A leading voice in college sports, she also serves as a studio analyst for the Big Ten Network and a radio host for SiriusXM. Nicole was named the 2020 National Sports Writer of the Year by the National Sports Media Association, becoming the youngest national winner of the prestigious award. Before joining The Athletic, she covered college football and college basketball for USA Today. Follow Nicole on Twitter @NicoleAuerbach