Paris Olympics 2024: Leon Marchand Unfazed Over Expectations Piling Up After Breaking Multiple NCAA Records

Where would Leon Marchand stop? The French prodigy has five world championships and seven NCAA titles in swimming in just 21 years of age! He has earlier stated that he considered himself lucky to have got the chance to compete in front of his home crowd. Therefore, Marchand would understandably look to mark the moment with nothing except gold. The 21-year-old served a good hint about it recently. 

On April 29, SwimSwam threw a question toward Leon Marchand on X, asking for his take on his winning margin in the upcoming Paris Olympics. The X-handle named two events- 200m fly and 200m breast in the men’s category. Keeping the utmost similarity with his raging form, Leon posted a ‘shrugging’ emoji to that question. It seems as if Marchand is not much in worry or scratching his head over his choice of events and performance. He is taking things slow but steady.

Notably, a few weeks ago, in the TYR Pro Swim Series in Westmont, Leon had earned the top seed in both swimming events. In the end, the French wunderkind stood victorious in the 200m fly event in TYR Pro. He defeated the ASU standouts like Chase Kalisz and Luca Urlando, concluding his race in 1:54.97 seconds.

In the 200m breast as well, Marchand holds an unprecedented result. This time in the NCCA championship, the Sun Devils’ prodigy broke his own 200m stroke record in 1:46.35. After a busy schedule in both the NCAA swimming session and TYR Pro Swimming in Westmont, Leon Marchand is looking forward to participating in the French Olympic swimming trials.

The window is still open as the French Elite Championships in June will hold the ultimate key to enter the Olympic berth. In the meantime, Leon Marchand is gaining confidence over his previous performances on American soil and the training he gained under Bob Bowman’s tutelage. And he has some more plans to keep things in place before the Paris Olympics. 

Leon Marchand’s exclusive plans before the Paris Olympics 2024 

After the Tokyo Olympics endeavor, Leon Marchand joined the ASU Sun Devils camp to train under Bob Bowman. Ultimately, he earned several accolades while training under the legendary coach and enjoying the practice sessions with greats like Chase Kalisz. Now, Bob Bowman has moved to the Texas Longhorns after his tenure at ASU. So Leon is eyeing to shift to Austin to train under Bob Bowman for two weeks. But that won’t be all in his upcoming preparation schedule. 

On a further note, he has informed that in the Olympic Training Center, he will spend 4 weeks honing his prowess. Surprisingly, Katie Grimes, the American swimming prodigy, took a hard training schedule in OTC in the past. And she still rejoices in the experience she gained there. So after the training schedule in OTC, Leon Marchand will move to France for the swimming trials episode. Meanwhile, his words still resonate: “I want to win. I want to be a Olympic champion. I don’t know in which swim, in which event, I don’t care. I just want to win.” It is probably this outlook that sweeps away all other pressure off Leon, keeping only the winning target in the focus.