Léon Marchand, crowned Thursday July 27 with a third title at the Fukuoka World Swimming Championships, stood out during the week with impressive flows, allowing him to make the difference on his opponents. Sunday July 23, for his 400 meters medley which allowed him to beat Michael Phelps’ world record, the 21-year-old swimmer covered more than 25% of his race underwater, or 100.62 m in all. A tiring exercise, the 400 meter medley totaling 8 laps.

On Thursday, in the 200 meter medley, he repeated the feat, once again taking advantage of his supersonic flows to get a head start. “The last one killed me!” he commented as he emerged from the pool, smiling.

“Leon is probably the best underwater, maybe even better than Michael Phelps. Currently, he is arguably the best swimmer in the world underwater. Even if these words of Bob Bowman, the American coach of Léon Marchand, date from a year ago, they resonate even stronger after his victories.

Bowman, the very man who shaped the now legendary Michael Phelps throughout his career, spoke thus a few weeks before the World Championships in Budapest last summer. At the time, his pupil’s record was still virgin at the international level. A year later, he has gained five world titles and a few broken records.

His extended runs also allow him to gauge the position of other swimmers. He has, he says, “a bit of peripheral vision, so it’s a pretty cool feeling.” “In general, in the heats and in the semi-finals, I try to hold myself back a little because it burns the legs quickly,” explains Marchand. “That’s what I do in training every day, I’m kind of used to doing that, it’s things that really hurt in the lungs, in the legs, etc. “.

Nicolas Castel, the coach who has accompanied the Frenchman since his debut in the Toulouse club “Dauphins du Toec”, recalls: “As a child, he liked to be underwater, to make waves. It was perhaps less remarkable because, compared to others, it was less impressive. And then around 13-14 years old, he started to make a difference at that level. »

???? Leon is on another level!! New World Champion in the 200m Medley // ?? 1:54.82 (European Record)

In short, Léon Marchand is counting more on his extraordinary endurance than on his brilliance, a winning bet so far. “It may not be the most powerful, but on the other hand, it has this ability to do it on all the pours, for the duration of the event. That’s what’s really strong,” he adds.