2023-06-14 20:43:21
When his silhouette appears on leaving the call room, Léon Marchand already has a victory in his pocket before even plunging into the Rennes oven: by the applause meter. THE « Léon ! » surge from the stands, like the titles of the Toulouse swimmer since the start of the French championships: already four in four races and as many tickets validated for the Worlds in Fukuoka (Japan), from July 23 to 30, the high point of the season.
On the poster for the event, his head barely protrudes among his ten compatriots in swimsuits, including Florent Manaudou or Mélanie Henique, represented in the manner of a superhero film. But in the Bréquigny basin, where the long-term competition takes place until Friday June 16, his green cap in the colors of his Toulouse club attracts attention. Like all the elite of tricolor swimming, Léon Marchand must make a detour to the Breton capital to win his qualification for the Worlds.
One year before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the new tricolor swimming phenomenon is arousing the enthusiasm of the French public, who have not seen him swim at home since the selections for the Tokyo Olympics, where he experienced his first Olympic final in the summer of 2021 (6e 400m medley). Since then, Léon Marchand has gone into exile in Arizona to work under the orders of Bob Bowman, mentor of Michael Phelps, the most successful athlete in the history of the Games (28 medals, including 23 gold).
Crowned double world champion in Budapest (200 m medley, 400 m medley) at the start of the summer of 2022, the 21-year-old Toulousain has definitely changed in dimension. In the spring, he was voted best swimmer in the American university championships (NCAA), which he flew over, undefeated in 26 individual races.
A “second chance” for those disappointed with Paris 2024
“There is inevitably a Léon Marchand effect, he is highly anticipated, when he is called [par le speaker]we feel this public expectation”notes Julien Issoulié, the national technical director (DTN) of French swimming. “There is also a real media momentum, we have largely doubled the requests for accreditation and we have had requests for video captures by the Japanese”, continues the DTN, polo shirt with the new motto of the French team: “Ambition, humility and French flair”. “We are even a little frustrated that the swimming pool is not a little bigger…”
The competition is sold out every day and the young prodigy’s favorite races – 200m medley, 400m medley and 200m butterfly, the three individual events he will swim in Fukuoka – were immediately taken assault. At 14 euros the place for the finals of the afternoon, the opportunity to satisfy the disappointed who did not manage to obtain a ticket during the great lottery of Paris 2024…
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