French Leon Marchand is one of the most interesting names of the summer Olympics in Paris. The favorite of the home games was broken by a swimming legend at last year’s World Championships Michael Phelps the ME of the 400 meter medley, which was also considered unbeatable, and grabbed three individual World Championship golds.
The 21-year-old Marchand has a seam in Paris for a rare swimming achievement, as he can fight for a personal Olympic victory in no less than four trips. Among male swimmers, only Phelps and Mark Spitzonly three Caeleb Dressel.
Purely because of Marchand, the Olympic swimming schedule has been changed during the spring. Originally, the 200-meter breaststroke and 200-meter butterfly should have been on consecutive days, but with the change, there are four different distance races between those final swims.
Therefore, if Marchand wants to, he can swim in both finals during the same evening.
Marchand’s personal trainer was lobbying for the change Bob Bowman and the French Swimming Federation. Urheilu’s swimming expert Ville Kalline have mixed feelings about the decision.
– It is somewhat doubtful that a single coach or sports federation can push through such decisions with exceptional status. It is, however, a domestic hero who we want to offer a big chance to win many individual gold medals. After all, that kind of thing creates stories.
Kallinen says that the swimming competition program has been modified before, at least in 2008, because of Phelps. A chance opened up for the swimming legend to pursue a historic eight Olympic gold medals.
Crazy fact about the world champion
200m breaststroke is a sport in which Matti Mattsson rushed for bronze at the previous Olympics held in Tokyo. Marchand, who has emerged as the clear leading star of men’s swimming, has not swum that distance in the prestigious competitions, but he has tremendous potential for it.
Last summer, he set a top time of 2:06.59 in his country’s championships, with which he was only a good second away from the then ME quotation for the distance. For comparison, Mattsson’s SE in the Olympic final is 2:07.13.
Kallinen feels that on the fifth day of Olympic swimming, Marchand has the best conditions to swim for the gold medal, specifically in the 200-meter breaststroke. In the 200-meter butterfly, he did celebrate the world championship last summer, but then the race was missing the ME man of the distance Kristóf Milák.
The Hungarian star has been in top form in the spring.
– If Milak is even close to his world record (1:50.34), Marchand has too long a journey to help. In butterfly swimming, he is also technically inferior. It’s crazy to say about the distance world champion that he is not technically as good at it as he is at breaststroke, Kallinen analyzed.
China’s wonder swimmer Qin Haiyang at the end of last summer, he cut almost half a second off the ME time in the 200-meter breaststroke (2:05.48). The Chinese stunned at the summer World Championships by winning all three men’s breaststroke events from 50m to 200m.
In April, it emerged that 23 Chinese swimmers were allowed to compete in the Tokyo Olympics, even though they had tested positive for a banned substance more than half a year earlier. Haiyang was also among them.
Read more: Shameful information about the decision-makers of the World Anti-Doping Agency raises questions
It is still open what will be the side of the Chinese swimmers when it comes to the Paris Olympics. If Haiyang is on the line, Kallinen believes Marchand has the chops to beat him and former ME man, Australian by Zac Stubblety-Cook.
– When Marchand swam his record, he wasn’t fully rested yet. The NCAA (university sports) competitions have shown that he is in really good shape in breaststroke. In that, Marchand is closer to the world record time than in the butterfly.
Strange statement
The 400-meter and 200-meter medley should be clear winning distances for Marchand. He himself recently stated that he does not yet know if he plans to swim four individual distances at the Olympics.
Kallinen does not swallow these talks.
– Yes, he has already mentally made the decision. If you think about the history of coach Bowman, he has prepared the Olympic programs with Phelps and other tough Olympic winners years ago.
– It’s a pure media game when Marchand claims he doesn’t know what he’s swimming. There will probably be a double swim there, Kallinen refers to swimming the 200-meter breaststroke and butterfly in the same evening section.
Mattsson’s dream crushed?
Mattsson, who has already qualified for the Paris Olympics, will therefore defend his Olympic medal from three years ago in France. Porilainen himself has talked about renewing the medal, but the goal seems almost utopian.
The sharpest top in the world is currently pushing an incredible ME speed, while Mattsson, on the other hand, has not come close to his record time of three years ago (2:07,13). After the Olympics, his best quote is 2:09.04.
Marchand’s participation would practically completely destroy Mattsson’s medal dreams, if the whole trio is on the line.
– If Marchand, Stubblety-Cook and Haiyang are on the line, it will be a mercilessly tough task. At that point, unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to believe myself that Matti would be able to beat someone from that trio, Kallinen retorts.
Kallinen estimates that Mattsson’s speed is enough for the first 100 meters. Compared to the world championships, however, he needs to do better in the last 50 meters.
Renewing the place in the finals, on the other hand, is full of realism. In Finnish terms, this trick has been successful Jani Sievinenwho was in the 200m individual medley Olympic final three times in a row.
– A place in the final would be a really hard achievement. You can’t get over it or around it, Kallinen reminds.