On the edge of the Indianapolis basin, commitment list rolled up in hand, coach Bob Bowman stamps around in his burgundy t-shirt in the colors of Arizona State University. His two ASU swimmers hardly made any sparks in the B final of the NL 500 yards and are already weighing down the points projections in the general classification in a competition that promises to be close.
But the American knows that he can count on the essential Léon Marchand to make him smile again. For his first individual race of the week (and incidentally the fourth NL 500 yards of his career), the Habs literally shattered their own record, established barely three weeks ago during the PAC-12, the annual meeting of twelve universities in the Western USA.
In a feat of aquatic magic, the five-time world champion transformed 4’06”18 into 4’02”31 to claim his sixth title in the NCAA final (for which he holds the records over five distances). Wednesday evening, he took advantage of the NL 800-yard relay to beat the 200-yard record (1′28′’97).
“It’s clear that I came to win and to make a time,” smiles the junior (name given to 3rd year students), sitting behind a small blue table and in front of more French journalists than local ones. I was 4′06 unshaven and as prepared as here. These are important races for me with a lot at stake. I don’t have much this year other than the Games. It’s good preparation. »
Under the gaze of his family, and among his 17 teammates, the Toulouse man is really in his bath. “It’s an environment that I love with a big atmosphere, a good atmosphere, a lot of energy and I also swim for others, for my team, so it was very pleasant to do this race,” he continues. There was a record to go for and I didn’t really know what my limit was, so it was cool to do that. I didn’t have a plan in my head. It was just let’s see how far I can go and how fast. And it worked pretty well…”
“I think I’m back…”
The heir of Michael Phelps has above all shown that he continues to broaden his scope of action and ambition. By focusing on the crawl to improve his medley finishes, the expected star of the Paris Olympics has opened up other horizons.
“I really want to do a good 200 crawl one day,” he says with relish. I don’t know when it will happen but it will happen. I think I really have skills to develop and work on because these are races where you really need to repeat. But I’m getting better and better and the future in crawl is quite nice…”
In the meantime, the Sun Devils spearhead still has “his” 400 yard medley on Friday, the 200 breaststroke on Saturday and relays to help his team win the first title in their history.
Léon Marchand can smile. He now has six individual titles for three appearances in the NCAA finals. (LP/Eric Bruna)
“It’s very important to have Léon on our team and I appreciate that he swims the 500 yards because we have good competition in the water at ASU,” confides Hungarian Zalán Sárkány after drying off with his parents the tears of a 10th place in the series of the event. He is fast, very good in the underwater parts. He’s truly an inspiration to everyone on the team. He has the mentality of a lion, he is very strong as soon as he enters his bubble. »
Even if Bowman, as usual, has his eye on the watch and marks his protégé with swimming trunks, he knows that he can count on Marchand to be at the top of the podiums.
“The first semester was really hard because I got sick (wisdom teeth surgery) and I had to go back to training and start again in December when everyone was doing crazy times in the meetings, recalls King Leo. It wasn’t a good feeling. Since then, I have improved week after week. I think I’m back…”
