Léon Marchand is the king of Olympic swimming this time around. The 22-year-old French swimmer dominated the men’s 200 IM final during the Paris Olympic Games, taking home his fourth gold medal. Over the past week, Léon was victorious in multiple other events.
The pro swimmer has broken several records. He is now the first French swimming champ to win several gold medals in the same Olympics. According to social media and Olympics viewers around the world, Léon is the new king of swimming.
Previously, the athlete opened up about his Olympic journey, per Olympics.com.
“When I returned to France, I was a bit stressed realising that the Olympics were less than a month away,” he explained. “But since I’ve been in training camp, I’ve been calm and serene. The event doesn’t overwhelm me; it will help me transcend.”
While crediting coach Bob Bowman — who also coached Michael Phelps — Léon noted, “Bob and I have done the job for a year and a half, now is not the time to panic. We don’t overthink it.”
“For me, it’s a driving force. Making history helps you learn about yourself and opens you up to others,” the gold medalist added. “Many French athletes, for example, are inspired by Florent Manaudou. It’s not my primary goal, but it comes with what I do in the water and the work I put in.”
Since Bob is aware of what works for Olympic hopefuls, he told the website that the “last thing” he wanted to do “with a high-level swimmer is make them dependent on their coach.”
“Léon is very good at knowing what he needs to do and how he needs to do it,” the coach explained. “We also have built in a system of routines that are basically automatic at this meet. All he needs to know is when his event starts and that lets him know when he’s going to warm up, when he’s going to put his suit on, when he’s going to go to the ready room, what to do after — he’s got a whole thing. He doesn’t really have to make a lot of decisions at the meet, and that’s by design, because the last thing you want to be doing at the Olympics is trying to figure that out. That just has to be part of your DNA at that point.”