Leon Marchand, after day one, has gotten back in the pools of Incheon. This time, it was on day two for the 200m Individual Medley finals. As the world expected, Marchand went on to win Gold, clocking 1:50.91. However, the win did not come easy. Marchand had a rather unfortunate start. But as the race progressed, he came back from third place and beat Great Britain’s Duncan Scott and Japan’s Daiya Seto. Despite the win, the fandom has some concerns with Leon’s performance.

An eagle-eyed netizen went on to write, “Less fast than in Shanghai, but still the 2nd world performance of the year. A little tired, but the margin is so big.” Well, the fan is not wrong. Marchand last week at the Shanghai clocked 1:50.30. A time which had set the French and European record. But as the fan rightly noted, Marchand’s time was slow. His competitors were nowhere close.

Duncan Scott went on to clock 1:51.25, while Daiya Seto clocked 1:52.36! But despite this difference, it is no surprise that the world expects more from the man who won four Olympic golds. But the other reason for the big hopes is, unfortunately, the track record the Marchand has himself created. It was during the World Championships in 2023 that he, after all, broke two of Micheal Phelps’ world records! However, it is not all glum for Marchand.

The fact, however, remains that Shanghai has been Marchand’s only sub-1:51 performance in this event this year. The fandom is not without excitement, as well. One fan went on to write, “My new vacation hobby: turning on France 3 at 1 p.m. and watching Léon Marchand win.” Well, might as well get habituated to it because Marchand shows absolutely no signs of stopping. Let’s take a look at day one of step two itself, for example.

On day one, Leon Marchand went head-to-head against Noe Ponti in the 100m. The match, unlike most of Marchand’s competition, had an unexpected result. The finals saw a tie between Noe and Marchand. Both of them had clocked 51.00 seconds! Apart from these finals, Marchand has been, as always, swimming in the heat of various events as well. And the fandom is speculating that these hectic races might just be catching up to Leon!

Despite the win, fans point out signs of fatigue.

Yes, Leon Marchand has already won a Gold at the World Cup, and it is a major milestone. But the fandom couldn’t help but notice something else. As a fan earlier mentioned, Marchand’s time was slower than that of Shanghai. But why? As another fan rightly puts it, “Man, it is such an amazing thing to see Leon Marchand in action, but am I the only one who thinks he looked slow and tired today.”

The possibility is not far off, considering the number of races and the season that Marchand has had. But on the other hand, he could be tired because of the break he took. After the Paris Olympics, Marchand took a break from swimming to spend some time relaxing. It was only after the break that he jumped back into the pools and started training. But even the training was not one he was accustomed to!

Leon Marchand came back to training but not with his legendary coach, Bob Bowman. Instead, he restarted his training with his old coach, Nicolas Castel. This change could also be the reason that a fan went on to write, “Missing out on making the cut for the finals should be a huge red flag.” Yes, that blunder also unfortunately happened on day two! So what exactly happened?

Imagine being a four-time Olympic gold medalist and not qualifying in the heats. Well, that is exactly what happened to Leon Marchand during the 100m freestyle hears. Marchand clocked 47.46 during his swim. The time was 0.04 seconds short of the qualifying time. Could the drop in performance be the fatigue, change in coaching, or the break from training itself? Despite all the speculation, the songs sung the loudest are none of these.

As a fan went on to sum it up, “Léon Marchand is truly killing it! Such an impressive performance in the 200m IM. Keep shining bright, Léon!”. It was a performance for the books, but unfortunately, it did not meet the Bob Bowman thrill levels. The World Cups were the ultimate litmus test that would show the world Marchand’s skills beyond Bob’s coaching. But unfortunately, it looks like Leon Marchand might just need some more coaching from Legends.

However, for now, the world will have to live with the Castel-Marchand pairing. All eyes are yet again on Leon Marchand, as he will be hitting the Incheon pools for the 400m IM next. Yes, the same race in which he broke the Phelps record in Fukuoka! Will he create a new one this time? Or is Marchand missing the Bob element?