When Leon Marchand took four Gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the world witnessed a swimmer at his peak. The man behind Marchand’s iconic wins, Bob Bowman had contrasting thoughts about this. “Honestly, with Leon… he was just really not that good for about the whole time going in,” said Bowman.

Yet, against all odds, Marchand kept up the winning streak! Bowman went on to talk about the training sessions with Marchand, which were oftentimes riddled with uncertainty. “You would see little parts of it and then you would think, well, maybe it’s going to be okay, and then he’d do something like, well, I’m not sure this is going well. But it wasn’t like it was terrible, but it wasn’t like it was great, you know? It was just kind of workman-like,” added Bowman.

The initial slowdown was not not without a silver lining that revealed itself soon! With time, Marchand’s session sure did get better. Bowman went on to proudly say, “As we got closer to the meet… I set him up for a suited-up rehearsal swim, and he was phenomenal.” Bowman’s meticulous approach and consistent training sure did go a long way. “By the time we got to Paris, he was doing pretty well, and certainly after the first race, you knew things were looking great,” he added.

The Bowman-Marchand duo kickstarted their journey together in 2021. It all began with a simple unsolicited email to Bowman from Marchand, expressing his dream to join the ASU swim team. This marked the beginning of their truly transformative journey of three golds at the World Swimming Championships and four Olympic Golds. It was under Bowman’s tutelage, that Marchand broke Michael Phelps’ world record in the 400m individual medley clocking 4:02.50 at the 2023 World Swimming Championships in Melbourne. Marchand’s coach is a man with a history that deserves its appreciation!

Phelps’ Coach, Bob Bowman’s advice to other coaches

Bob Bowman’s coaching legacy is one of the greatest epics penned! He is the man who coached the 23-time Olympic Gold medalist Michael Phelps.  Remember when Michael Phelps and Bob Bowman turned the pool into a swimming extravaganza? How can anyone forget the 2004 Athens Olympics? Phelps swept the Olympics clean with eight gold medals, smashing world records in the 100m, 200m, and 400m individual medleys, plus the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays. Bowman molded Phelps’ talent to be unstoppable!

Phelps gold rush continued at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Phelps continued his streak of wins at the 2009 Rome World Championships which ended with four more wins and five new world records. By 2012 in London, Phelps bagged four more golds and two silvers. After a break, he came back in 2015 at the Kazan World Championships with three golds and two silvers. That’s not all! At his swan song at the 2016 Rio Olympics, he retired with five golds and a silver. No coach has a trajectory as Gold studded as Bowman. And his coaching mantra?

Bowman’s coaching mantra is all about the big picture! “I’ve been thinking about this whole process, and it’s a great lesson for coaches. If the work before has been solid… the goal is to have them ready on the meet day, not two weeks before,” he said. Bowman has honed this approach over the years of working with Phelps and now Marchand.

Bowman went on to add, “A lot of us as coaches want to see everything perfect all the time to feel good about it, but that’s not really how it works if you’re aiming to be ready on the big day.” However, the Paris Olympics 2014 serves as testimony that Bowman’s strategy definitely seems to be working. He went to break the glass ceiling and say, “It wasn’t just like a fairy tale where everything was perfect the whole way.” As the dynamic Marchand-Bowman duo continues to train, the world is in for many more wonders!