A new swimming sensation, Léon Marchand is the expected star of the world championships. The Frenchman has revealed the keys to his success, including his secrets for preparing for his races.
Already multiple French and world champion in long course, Léon Marchand knows he is eagerly awaited at the next Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. In Paris, he should be one of the greatest chances of a French medal and the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, from July 23 to 30, 2023, are an important point of passage, as much to refine his technique and his physique as to manage the pressure of a big event, which he will tackle this time with the costume of favorite.
To manage his stress and external pressure, Léon Marchand is followed by a specialist, the mental trainer Thomas Sammut. “There was something wrong,” the swimmer explained to Brut media in 2022, when presenting this collaboration, an “additional help”.
“My goal is to know who I am as a human being. I knew I was a swimmer but apart from that I had nothing, I was a bit lost. Today the goal it is to determine if I am able to go to the big competitions as an individual. It transcends me and it gives me a favorable energy”, confided the Frenchman. “When I manage to put this energy in my body, I manage to regenerate myself in the race, to start fast, to dare. Before I was shy. Now I have nothing to lose and it’s a strength “.
The two men have been working together ever since, even from a distance since Léon Marchand trains for most of the year in the United States with the famous trainer Bob Bowman, the man who shaped the record holder for Olympic medals, the American Michael Phelps.
Often compared to the ogre Phelps, Léon Marchand had to deal with this cumbersome legacy. “Bob welcomed him very well and above all very well accepted the principle that we had set ourselves together. It is that Léon is not Michael Phelps, explained in 2022 his trainer Thomas Sammut to the Parisian. “I do not want us to do too much to get world records from him if in a year he cracks. When Phelps ended his first career (between 2012 and 2014), he sank into depression, alcohol, drugs. If we can avoid that in Leon…”
Uninhibiting the event, having fun, learning to love yourself for what you are seems to be the leitmotif of the Frenchman who shares certain secrets. Before the races, he isolates himself and opens a manga. The Frenchman also does breathing exercises and manages “cardiac coherence” to better manage possible stress. “Personal fulfillment is more important than the sporting result, abounds his trainer. ‘The job is to see Léon with a smile. If he is an Olympic champion and depressed, where is success? “
