The world held its breath during the men’s 400-meter individual medley finals at the Paris Olympics, as two swimming prodigies—France’s Leon Marchand and Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita—went head-to-head in a race that will be remembered for years to come. The French phenom, Marchand, delivered a breathtaking performance, clocking in at 4:02.95 to shatter the Olympic record and claim his place atop the podium with a gold medal.

Marchand’s victory was historic, as he broke the Olympic record previously held by the legendary Michael Phelps, whose time of 4:03.84 had stood since the 2008 Beijing Games. Yet, despite his incredible achievement, Marchand fell just short of surpassing his own world record of 4:02.50, set at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

In the wake of this extraordinary race, Marchand’s coach, the iconic Bob Bowman—who also coached Phelps—has weighed in on whether the French swimmer should have pushed even harder to eclipse his own world record. The question lingers: could Marchand have dug deeper, or did he already give everything he had?

Talking with SwimSwam on YouTube, Bowman exclaimed that Merchand might have gotten into relaxation mode when he thought he was winning comfortably, and that made all the difference. Incidentally, Merchand won the race ahead of his closest rival in the 400m individual medley, Tomoyuki Matsushita, by a whopping six seconds margin. When he was asked if he thought he could have broken the world record, Bowman replied, “I do think when he got so far ahead and he knew he’s gonna win, he just kind of relaxed which which make total sense yeah yeah yeah and he he’ll do a thing at the end of races he does it a lot in the short course he didn’t really do it as much in the long course.”

Bowman further went on to reveal a particular technique of Merchand that help him push through the water faster. Bowman called it the “Crazy Frenchman” where he pick up his head, stopped breathing, and cut through the water at unprecedented speed. However, Merchant only used it in the short course, a technique if exploited fully could have bestowed him greater honors. “I wish he had done it in the um the the 2 I Am particularly but like in the last five he’ll do what you’re never supposed to do pick his head straight up and not breathing just like do this but he really picks up time when he does it and he yeah I call it the crazy Frenchman I’m like do the crazy Frenchman at the end and he was like oh I didn’t do it but I think maybe that might have gotten him close to the record,” exclaimed Bowman.

With Leon Merchand under his tutelage, Bob Bowman now has a pupil who can rise to the levels of Michael Phelps, the swimming legend, with a whopping 23 Olympic gold medals to his name. That’s why, despite his extraordinary feat at the Paris, Bob Bowman sees potential for even greater heights.”

Bob Bowman still sees room for improvement in Leon Merchand

Leon Merchand stunned the world with his extraordinary achievements at the Paris Olympics. Claiming four golds in individual swimming events at the Olympics, Marchand became the sixth man in history to achieve the feat. Bob Bowman, his coach, was on cloud nine watching his star pupil gracing the podium on not one but four occasions. However, the Longhorns head coach thinks he can do better. “Honestly, with Leon… he was just really not that good for about the whole time going in,” said Bowman.

He took Merchand under his tutelage in 2021 after an unsolicited email from the French phenom expressing his dream to join the ASU swim team. Under the watchful eyes of Bowman, Marchand bloomed into a top-class swimmer who completely rocked the Paris Olympics with his record-shattering performances in four individual swimming events. However, Leon Merchand’s complete dominance of the world swimming arena is far from complete. But with the world’s best swimming coach guiding his path, he is surely poised to climb new heights of success and perhaps one day can even surpass the legendary Michael Phelps.