It is often said that a superfast train is nothing without its engine. But that is not true in the case of Leon Marchand, as he seems to be an entire package in itself! Marchand, who has been coached by Bob Bowman so far, is currently missing the service of his engine. Yet, there is not a hint of the Marchand Mania slowing down anytime soon.

After creating history back in the French capital by winning four Olympic gold medals, Marchand is now conquering the Asian waters too. Guided by childhood coach Nicolas Castel, the French swimmer is forming a gargantuan shadow of dominance over his opponents.

Quite expectedly, Marchand was pretty eager to jump into the chlorine-soaked waters of the Swimming World Cup in Shanghai. And when he did, there seemed to be no competition existing. While already having won two of his events previously, the 22-year-old Olympic champion made it a three-out-three affair a few minutes back. Competing in the men’s 400m individual medley final, Marchand secured his third gold medal by clocking 4:00.03 seconds. To give context to his dominance, the second-placed Alberto Razzetti of Italy clocked a timing that was 1:48s slower than the Frenchman.

Earlier, the Golden Boy of Swimming also clinched gold in the 100m and the 200m individual medley. The Olympic gold medalist swam the 100m IM in 50.65s, while he reached the finish line in 1:50.30s for the 200m IM category. This was one of the best performances of the 22-year-old, as he broke the World Cup, European, and French records all at once. Now then, the swimming world has not seen such a dominant swimming display after the Michael Phelps era. 

With Bob Bowman currently busy with taking on the responsibilities of the head coach in Texas, Marchand seems to be following all the learnings to the point in his absence. As a matter of fact, he has got Castel, who initially spotted Marchand and was the first one to toil with the Frenchman while he was struggling to put on body weight. Luckily for Marchand, he is expected to reunite with Bowman soon, after which Michael Phelps’ ex-coach will help Marchand straighten out his flaws. 

Bob Bowman is unhappy with Leon Marchand 

Bob Bowman has a hard mind to please. For he is only looking to achieve greatness with Leon Marchand. Bowman and Marchand have been an inseparable duo during their time at the ASU Sun Devils. Now that Bowman has moved on to his new role for the Texas Longhorns, Marchand is expected to follow him back at the beginning of 2025. However, before their reunion, Bowman has been surprisingly critical of his star pupil. 

Despite taking the swimming world by storm, Bowman had some intricate things to take note of. Speaking about the Olympic champion, his mentor stated that Marchand has still not reached his 100% potential. Bowman stressed the importance of proper rehab techniques outside of the pool to get his body well-conditioned. 

Bowman further detailed about fine-tuning some of the Frenchman’s technical flaws to further get him up to speed in his quest towards swimming glory. Thus, with a lot of promising results to come, his current form is a hint of how big a storm Leon Marchand is transforming into. Surely, the swimming world will watch in awe as the Frenchman will keep sweeping his competition until he etches his name in gold on the eternal pages of swimming folklore.