NANTERRE, France — Even Léon Marchand considered it a most difficult day: He swam four races with hardly any time to stop and rest.
Or eat. Or see his family. Or let his body recover.
The French phenom had his 200-meter butterfly semifinal Tuesday night then immediately needed to switch gears for the 200 breaststroke semis less than 90 minutes later. All that after doing the same daunting double during the morning session with prelims in both those events.
And Wednesday won’t be much different - except medals will now be on the line.
Yes, he will do it all again a mere 24 hours later.
“I think it should be easier tomorrow and I can just go all out in both races tomorrow night, so that will be really fun for me,” Marchand said after clocking a 2-minute, 8.11-second finish in the breaststroke semi to cap his busy day in the pool. “Also four races is a lot for my system, so I’ve got to sleep a lot, eat a lot and I’ll be ready for tomorrow night.”
Anything seems achievable for France’s man of the moment, and no doubt this feat was quite something for the home crowd to witness at La Defense Arena.
Marchand had his recovery routine all set: “I’ll swim, call my parents, massage and then I’ll sleep a lot.”
He wound up with the top breaststroke time and was second-fastest in the fly at 1:53.50 almost a second behind world-recordholder Kristóf Milák of Hungary in 1:52.72, all while gliding through the water to the deafening chants of “Le-on! Le-on!” and cheers for his every kick and pull.
The 22-year-old Marchand is getting used to the constant fanfare and spotlight after capturing gold in the 400 individual medley Sunday.
He is already earning comparisons to Michael Phelps - and, from a joking teammate, an alien or Jesus.
“We train all the year for this. We swim like 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) by week and it’s enough to do two or three races by day, but LéonMarchand he’s incredible and he’s like an alien,” 800 freestyle finalist David Aubry said. “He’s Jesus. It’s another level. It’s pretty incredible. He’s a fish.”
One fan waved a sign reading “Léon Marchand de reves,” or Léon Marchand of dreams.
He’s relishing every minute.
“I love it,” Marchand said. “The French crowd has been amazing for me, this venue’s been amazing. I’m just really lucky to be in good shape this week to swim as fast as possible.”
Even his coach Bob Bowman, who for years helped guide Michael Phelps to greatness then coached Marchand at Arizona State as they won an NCAA team championship, said he had never seen anything like it.
“He actually told me that, I didn’t know that was possible because I think he went to like six or seven Olympics,” Marchand said. “Yeah it’s been cool to see that.”
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