While his comrades from the French team are frolicking in the swim at the European Championships in Poland, Léon Marchand is already thinking big. The four-time Olympic champion begins his 50m pool season this week at the US Open. In a slightly familiar setting…
The competition takes place in Austin, his Texan training base for a year and a half, in a swimming pool that he uses every day. For his return to school, Bob Bowman’s protégé chose to compete in five events. In order of appearance, a 400m freestyle that he really wants to explore (this Thursday afternoon in France), a 100m lineup (breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly on Friday) and finally the 200m butterfly (Saturday) in which he had not lined up since his unforgettable coronation at the Paris Olympics. A busy schedule.
“He attacked the start of the school year with the ambition of doing something quite important for the European Championships in Paris next summer,” confides his Toulouse trainer and coach Nicolas Castel. Both in quantity and novelty. It’s the perfect season for that. Without denigrating the European level, we know that the density is lower. Even if in certain events this represents the best world level, there are still more ways to reach the finals and the podiums. »
Suffice to say that there will be crawl on the program of the stay at the Saint-Denis Aquatic Center (from August 10 to 16, 2026). “Last year, we had to take the time,” continues Castel. But this year, we are putting a toe into Los Angeles 2028. Because the Games cannot be anticipated a month in advance. So there, the first elements which will tell us if Léon presents for example the 400m freestyle in Los Angeles, these are these reference competitions like the Europe in Paris or the Worlds the following year (in the summer of 2027 in Budapest). »
An internship in California with the Blues in January
The sports director of the TOEC Dolphins has not yet looked closely at the schedule of events for the 2028 Olympics, released a few days ago. Neither does his most brilliant student. “But I think Bowman already did it,” he jokes. Because he has a lot of athletes and he probably needs to have a little wider projection. Today, the most important thing is not whether you will double or triple (in the same day). But you have to have an eye because indeed, if at a given moment, you have to triple, the dose of work will not be the same! »
No chance of this happening. The schedule for 2028 (where swimming will for once be the second week of the Games) would even allow the seven-time world champion to put his four Parisian crowns back into play and add the 400m freestyle without duplicate finals. “Afterwards, more than the content of the programming, we must above all be able to anticipate all the details which could pose a problem,” adds Castel.
In any case, Marchand will soon see the City of Angels. At the beginning of January, in fact, he will meet his comrades from the national selection there for a one-week training course in the suburbs of the Californian megalopolis. Before welcoming everyone… again at home. On their way back to France, the Blues will make a stopover in Austin to compete in the Tyr Pro Swim Series long-distance meeting (January 14 to 17).
