Leon Marchand is the man to spearhead France into the Paris Olympics, and it’s pretty evident from how fans have been lining up to watch him. There’s no stopping the Sun Devils’ MVP. But the man behind Marchand’s world-shattering success, Bob Bowman, is not unknown to see such success. After all, he trained swimming’s greatest, Michael Phelps.

While Bob Bowman took Leon Marchand to help the Frenchman reach his maximum potential, how did they meet? Unlike Bowman’s trained eye, which noticed Phelps’ talent at 7 years old, Marchand took the first step.

The fated meeting between Leon Marchand and Bob Bowman

Before he came to ASU, Bob Bowman had already transformed the college into one of the best colleges in the nation. One fateful email from Leon Marchand caught Bowman’s eye, not for the young prodigy’s name but for his father’s. Xavier Marchand, France’s 2-time Olympian, was the first to come to Bowman’s mind.

He said about the email, “So then he basically said, ‘Do you think maybe you’d be interested in having me on your team?’” This prompted the then-new NCAA head coach to look up Leon Marchand, and what he saw only amazed him. Building his perfect ASU team had Bowman inviting Marchand all the way to America.

Initially, the Frenchman was disappointed to find that ASU didn’t give him the full scholarship. But his mind altered completely when Bowman came into the picture. After sending relentless messages on WhatsApp, Bowman and Marchand finally met each other in Tokyo. Here, Bowman would coach his last American team, and Marchand would make his Olympic debut.

On meeting the Olympic gold medalist, Bowman only had one line: “We hugged right away like we had known each other forever.”

At first glance, Bowman found none of Michael Phelp’s human excellence in Leon Marchand. It wasn’t until the 22-year-old swam and showcased the perfect “torpedo” that would take him to great heights. This began the duo that would blow everyone’s minds when Marchand took Bowman’s previous success, Michael Phelps’ impossible records.

In Bob Bowman’s eyes, making the record, in Phelps’ case or Marchand’s case, it was all in the training. Their training might’ve been years apart from each other, but Bowman’s skill of shaping the best in the world.

Trained differently, yet Phelps and Marchand were shaped alike

Unwavering to etch his name in history, Michael Phelps went above and beyond in training. Under Bowman, he had a split training regimen: one focused on swimming and the other on building his stamina. Swimming 80,000 m every week, ESPN’s #1 Olympic athlete skipped even birthdays and holidays.

But when training Marchand, Bowman took a different approach. When the Frenchman made headlines with his NCAA wins, Bowman came out to explain his new way of forming a swimming icon. He said about Marchand’s training, “I’m trying to let the way he reacts sort of dictate what we do, instead of forcing him into some program.”

First, this method worked tremendously in scoring 10 NCAA titles. Now, it has helped Leon Marchand prove his hype to the entire world. Securing his first gold was just the start, as this swimmer’s goal has a legacy Michael Phelps will chase at the Paris Olympics.