Coach Bob Bowman sees similarities to Michael Phelps
Léon Marchand was 7 years old when he quit swimming.
He didn’t quit because his parents, Xavier Marchand and Céline Bonnett, were pushing him to take up a family business. (Xavier Marchand had competed in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics for France, and Bonnet took part in the 1992 Games.)
And he didn’t quit because he was afraid of the work.
He quit because, well, the water was too cold.
“I was like, really skinny and the pool was just awful,” Marchand said. “So, I quit swimming for two years.”
It’s funny to think about, now, that the Arizona State University 21-year-old sophomore who won six medals (including three gold) at the 2023 NCAA Division I men’s swimming championships … and became arguably the sport’s best male swimmer … and may break the 15-year-old 400 individual medley record set by Michael Phelps … gave up the sport because he was cold.
But a legend has to start somewhere. Why not a shivering kid with a towel wrapped around his waist?
Fast-forward 14 years. Marchand is talking to a reporter as he stands on the deck at ASU’s Mona Plummer Aquatic Complex. He’s trying to explain the single-minded focus it takes to be a world-class swimmer.
“It’s a very difficult sport,” he says. “It’s kind of hard to enjoy the process all the time. You’re training for years for a race that might last 20 seconds.”
That sacrifice is why Marchand’s parents were unbothered when he left the pool to take up other sports, including rugby. They encouraged him, in fact, to explore other outlets. But he was never as good on the land as he was in the water so, at the age of 9, he embraced his fate.
ASU is thankful he did.
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