As the unstoppable Léon Marchand swam to his fourth individual 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 just swept the gold medals in all four events he entered, winning the 400m individual medley, then the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke on the same night, and the 200m medley on Friday, clocking Olympic-record times in each.
One night after another, Marchand transformed the converted rugby arena in the western Paris suburbs into a white-hot cauldron of sound, holding a country of 68m souls in his thrall.
None of it might have been possible without Bob Bowman, the most successful coach in US swimming, best known for discovering Michael Phelps at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, sculpting his raw talent into a winning machine before coaching the American to an extraordinary 23 Olympic golds and 28 in all. Now Bowman has struck gold with another pool prodigy whose future is bursting with promise.
“It’s an incredible series of events,” he said. “I feel like he did everything we could possibly expect of him in this environment, in this sort of lead-up and preparation. He couldn’t have handled himself better in between all the races. So it was just a complete success … He’s just 100% successful. I’m very proud of him, it takes a lot to be perfect.”
Four years ago, Bowman, soon after taking the coaching job at Arizona State University, received an email from a French teenager hoping to attend college and train in the United States.
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
Bowman had never heard of the sender, though he recognised the surname and correctly deduced his parents had been swimmers. The coach, who was trying to build a national contender from scratch at the school in Tempe, wrote back.
After a series of Skype calls that left both parties impressed, Marchand accepted a full scholarship with the Sun Devils, forging a partnership that yielded 10 individual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) titles in three seasons and the Sun Devils’ first NCAA team title. When Bowman left Arizona to take a job with the University of Texas in the spring, Marchand made the 1,000-mile move to Austin to keep working under him.
Soon after, Bowman, who was the head coach for the US swimming team as recently as last summer at the world championships in Fukuoka, joined the French coaching staff as an assistant so he could continue working with Marchand directly in the run-up to a home Olympics. That raised some eyebrows back home, where Bowman has been a fixture for American teams, as an assistant or head coach, for two decades.
By recusing himself from his US duties, it has freed Bowman up to coach pupils regardless of nationality. That includes the American backstroker Regan Smith, who collected three individual silvers and two relay golds in Paris and often trains with Marchand. Same for the Hungarian Hubert Kos, who surged to 200m backstroke gold last Thursday.
“The magic touch is the work,” Kos said of Bowman. “He doesn’t let us be second-best. He doesn’t let us stoop down to a level he doesn’t want from us. That brings out the best in us.”
All of it set the stage for when Marchand made La Défense Arena the canvas for his epochal pièce de résistance. The France international footballer Antoine Griezmann was among the roaring supporters when Marchand won the 400 individual medley for his first gold. When he completed the sweep last Friday, matching a feat achieved by Phelps and Mark Spitz, television cameras captured the French president, Emmanuel Macron, pumping his fist.
Perhaps the high point of Bowman’s week came on the Wednesday, when Marchand dethroned two Olympic champions – Hungary’s Kristof Milak in the 200m butterfly and Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook in the 200m breaststroke – inside 90 minutes. That made him the fourth swimmer to win two individual golds in the same day, a feat last accomplished by East Germany’s Kornelia Ender in 1976.
“I’m so proud of him,” Bowman said. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen somebody win two individual events [in the same session]. He’ll never forget it. Quite honestly, this whole meet is about me fulfilling a promise I made to a kid three years ago and that I could come through and deliver because not only was it a challenge for him, it was a huge challenge for me.
“To put it together and see it come to fruition, it’s incredibly satisfying to be able to help him meet this moment.”
After completing the historic sweep , Marchand said he will continue training with Bowman. “We shared amazing moments here. We’ve been working really hard over the last three years. I don’t know how to do the next part [of my career]. He will really help me with that, because he knows a lot about it.”
If understatement was an Olympic sport, Marchand might have added a fifth gold right there. The pair will turn their sights to the Los Angeles Olympics in four years’ time, when the swimming will be staged before record crowds of 38,000 spectators at SoFi Stadium, the home of the NFL’s LA Rams and Chargers. Bullish as ever, Bowman said Marchand was only getting started and could also take part in other events by then, such as the 100m butterfly, as his physical frame becomes stronger with time.
“He can be better,” said Bowman, who already ranks Marchand among swimming’s all-time greats. “He’s not reached his potential. He can definitely swim faster than that. I’m ranking him at the top right now because he’s just got the total package. He’s got the speed, he’s got the endurance, he’s got the underwaters.”
