Because the unstoppable Léon Marchand swam to his fourth particular person gold medal in six days, the 59-year-old American coach behind the face of the Paris Olympics was moved to tears on the pool deck.
The 22-year-old from Toulouse had simply swept the gold medals in all 4 occasions he entered, profitable the 400m particular person medley, then the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke on the identical night time, and the 200m medley on Friday, clocking Olympic-record occasions in every. One night time after one other, Marchand reworked the transformed rugby area within the western Paris suburbs right into a white-hot cauldron of sound, holding a rustic of 68m souls in his thrall.
None of it may need been doable with out Bob Bowman, essentially the most profitable coach in US swimming, finest recognized for locating Michael Phelps on the North Baltimore Aquatic Membership, sculpting his uncooked expertise right into a profitable machine earlier than teaching the American to 23 Olympic golds and 28 in all. Now Bowman has struck gold with one other pool prodigy whose future is bursting with promise.
“It’s an unbelievable sequence of occasions,” he mentioned. “I really feel like he did every little thing that we might presumably count on of him on this surroundings, on this type of lead-up and preparation. He couldn’t have dealt with himself higher in between all of the races. So it was only a full success … He’s simply 100% profitable. So I’m very happy with him, it takes lots to be excellent.”
4 years in the past Bowman, quickly after taking the teaching job at Arizona State College, acquired an e-mail from a French teenager hoping to attend faculty and practice in america.
Expensive sir, I’m a French swimmer, my identify is Léon Marchand (18 years outdated). I wish to be part of the college of Arizona State in summer season 2021 for swim and compete in NCAA along with your superb group. Do you suppose I may benefit from a scholarship? What stage of training is required? (TOEFL, SAT …) You can find hooked up my presentation sheet. Thanks for the time granted to my request.
Sportingly, Léon
Bowman had by no means heard of the sender, although he acknowledged the surname and accurately deduced his mother and father had been swimmers. The coach, who was making an attempt to construct a nationwide contender from scratch on the faculty in Tempe, wrote again.
After a sequence of Skype calls that left each events impressed, Marchand accepted a full scholarship with the Solar Devils, forging a partnership that yielded 10 particular person Nationwide Collegiate Athletic Affiliation (NCAA) titles in three seasons and the Solar Devils’ first NCAA group title. When Bowman left Arizona to take a job with the College of Texas within the spring, Marchand made the 1,000-mile transfer to Austin to maintain working below him.
Quickly after, Bowman, who had labored as the top coach for the US swimming group as lately as final summer season on the world championships in Fukuoka, joined the French teaching employees as an assistant so he might proceed working with Marchand immediately within the run-up to a house Olympics. That raised some eyebrows again house, the place Bowman has been a fixture on the deck for American groups, as an assistant or head coach, for 20 years.
By recusing himself from his US teaching duties, it has freed Bowman as much as coach pupils no matter nationality. That features the American backstroker Regan Smith, who collected three particular person silvers and two relay golds in Paris and infrequently trains with Marchand. Identical for the Hungarian Hubert Kos, who surged to 200m backstroke gold on Thursday.
“The magic contact is the work,” Kos mentioned of Bowman. “He doesn’t allow us to be second-best. He doesn’t allow us to stoop all the way down to a stage he doesn’t need from us. That brings out the perfect in us.”
All of it set the stage for the previous week, when Marchand made La Défense Area the canvas for his epochal pièce de résistance. The France worldwide footballer, Antoine Griezmann, was among the many roaring supporters when Marchand received the 400 particular person medley final Sunday for his first gold. When he accomplished the sweep on Friday, matching a feat achieved by Phelps and Mark Spitz, tv cameras captured the French president, Emmanuel Macron, pumping his fist.
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Maybe the excessive level of Bowman’s week got here on the Wednesday, when Marchand dethroned two Olympic champions – Hungary’s Kristof Milak within the 200m butterfly and Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook dinner within the 200m breaststroke – inside 90 minutes. That made him the fourth swimmer to win two particular person golds in the identical day, a feat final achieved by East Germany’s Kornelia Ender in 1976.
“I’m so happy with him,” Bowman mentioned. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen someone win two particular person occasions [in the same session]. Tonight was superb, he’ll always remember it. Fairly truthfully, this entire meet is about me fulfilling a promise I made to a child three years in the past and that I might come via and ship as a result of not solely was it a problem for him, it was an enormous problem for me.
“To place it collectively and see it come to fruition, it’s extremely satisfying to have the ability to assist him meet this second.”
After finishing the historic sweep on Friday night time, Marchand mentioned he’ll proceed coaching with Bowman. “We shared superb moments right here. We’ve been working actually laborious over the past three years. I don’t know easy methods to do the subsequent half [of my career]. I feel he’ll actually assist me with that, as a result of he is aware of lots about it.”
If understatement was an Olympic sport, Marchand may need added a fifth gold proper there. The pair will flip their sights to the Los Angeles Olympics in 4 years’ time, the place the swimming shall be staged earlier than file crowds of 38,000 spectators at SoFi Stadium, the house of the NFL’s LA Rams and Chargers. Bullish as ever, Bowman mentioned Marchand was solely getting began and will additionally participate in different occasions by then, such because the 100m butterfly, as his bodily body turns into stronger with time.
“He will be higher,” mentioned Bowman, who already ranks Marchand amongst swimming’s all-time greats. “He’s not reached his potential. He can undoubtedly swim sooner than that. I’m rating him on the prime proper now as a result of he’s simply acquired the full package deal. He’s acquired the velocity, he’s acquired the endurance, he’s acquired the underwaters.”
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