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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Pat Forde

Made in America: How the U.S. Forged the Olympic Swimmers Competing Against Them in Paris

From Toulouse to Tempe, Léon Marchand attended Arizona State to work with acclaimed coach Bob Bowman. | Diannie Chavez/The Republic / USA TODAY

Check out Sports Illustrated’s Daily Rings, our daily Olympics podcast from Mitch Goldich and Dan Gartland. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts (Apple, Spotify) and find clips on SI’s YouTube page.

The best male swimmer in the world and the best female swimmer in the world have several things in common. Both are the children of Olympians. Both have mastered what is considered the hardest event in the sport—the 400-meter individual medley—to the point of establishing seemingly untouchable world records. Both will head to the Summer Olympics as burgeoning heroes in their respective home countries.

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