Léon Marchand resumes the Grand Basin competition from Thursday at the Tyr Pro Swim in Fort Lauderdale, in the United States. The quadruple Olympic champion is engaged on five races, including the 200m brew, the 200 and 400m 4 swamps on which he won gold in Paris. The Toulousain, on the other hand, left aside the 200m butterfly to compete in the 200m and 400m freestyle, two events on which he now hopes to shine for the Los Angeles Olympics.
He will dive into the unknown, with desire and gluttony. Léon Marchand is playing this first competition of the year on Thursday in Fort Lauderdale, his first real competition in the big basin this Thursday since the Paris Olympic Games. “I would like to be in good shape to be able to make good times and know where I am, said to us in mid-April the quadruple Olympic champion. Because I have no idea where I am. It’s been a long time since I have done any competition.”
Since his mad summer, Léon Marchand has shone on the world Cup circuit in a small pool in October with in particular a world record broken on the 200m 4 swimming. Tired, he had given up the Worlds in a small pool in December. And apart from a getaway on Reunion Island for a 50m basin meeting where he had only aligned himself on breaststroke tests, the Toulousain goes for the first time since the Paris Olympic Games Playing a Grand Basin competition. And take a first step in what he hopes to be his new kingdom: free swimming.
“I have focused on the crawl since January when I arrived in Australia with Dean Boxall”, explains Léon Marchand who spent three months “Down Under” from January to March.
“It seemed logical to me because there are a lot of Olympic medalists in the distance of free swimming in the training group. We did a lot of technique, series that prepare the 200m and the 400m crawl so I started my free swim challenge (laughs) In January. “Returning to the United States with Bob Bowman, his now -based coach based in Texas, the five -time Olympic medalist” still continues the four swimming because Bob (Bowman) has not changed, he continues to prepare the 400m 4 swimming. It’s perfect it’s a good balance. I don’t know when, but I want to make a good 400m, a good 200m freestyle, it will happen one day. “
“If I redo the same thing every day, I’m going to get bored”
In Fort Lauderdale, Léon Marchand is therefore registered on his fetish races in 200m and 400m 4 swamps as well as the 200m breaststroke, distances on which he won gold in Paris. And he had to put the 200m butterfly on the side to make a little room for the 200m and 400m freestyle. “Each year I change lots of things, details merchant. I have the impression that if I do the same thing every day, I will be bored. This is not the goal and I will not swim faster. If I want to swim faster I need to change my strategy, improve certain parts of my 400m 4 swimming, for example the crawl, go on new races where I have no landmark.”
Winner of the 500 Yards Flier Libre a little more than a year ago at the NCAA finals with the best time in history, it has been predicted for a bright future on what is a bit of a large basin equivalent, the 400m freestyle. A distance he almost never swam in his career. We find the trace of his best time on the distance in 2020 with a very modest 4’04 “65, less fast than his world record of … 400m 4 swimming (4’02” 50)!
“The 400m freestyle, I do not know at all how we swim, laughs Léon Marchand. It will do it because Bob, he knows how to do and he will have a lot of advice to give me. But the first 400m freestyle, it is not going to be easy! And it will be the most exciting because it is brand new and that I have no bearings. I need that to progress, I need to do my area, Before.”
A huge margin of progression
And for his first foray into these new distances from Crawl, Léon Marchand will already have the respondent in the lines of water next door. With in particular Kieran Smith the bronze medalist at Tokyo Games in 2021 on the distance or the double Olympic champion of the 1500m Bobby Finke. And by 200m the world record holder and training partner at Austin Luke Hobson and his teammates from the American 4x200m relay in Paris.
Input competition and two distances, the 200 and the 400m freestyle, in boiling in recent weeks. The old world record of the 400m held since 2009 and the time of the magic combinations by the German Paul Biedermann was broken on April 12 by another German, the Olympic champion in Paris Lukas Martens (3’39 “96).
“It makes me vibrate because I do not know if it is possible, continue the French. I have never really made crawl, my best time on 400m freestyle, it must be 4’02 (4’04, editor’s note). The new world record holder swam 3’39 by passing 1’47 at the first 200m, which seems impossible. In my training group there is Luke Hobson And Rex Maurer who is swimming very quickly on 500 yards (second performer in history behind Marchand).
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