The Frenchman won the 200 and 400IM double, the 200m breaststroke and the 200 fly in front of an ecstatic home crowd at La D\u00e9fense Arena to become only the third man \u2013 along with Michael Phelps<\/strong> and Mark Spitz<\/strong> \u2013 to win four individual gold medals at a single Olympics.<\/p>\n He completed his silverware in the medley relay where he joined Yohann Ndoye Brouard<\/strong>, Maxime Grousset<\/strong> and Florent Manaudou<\/strong>, swimming the breaststroke leg as France claimed bronze.<\/p>\n Marchand\u2019s impact rippled far beyond swimming. French president Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media platform X \u2013 formerly Twitter: \u201cThe impossible isn\u2019t French! Four home gold medals and a new Olympic record \u2014 it\u2019s historic. It\u2019s L\u00e9on Marchand.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia<\/p><\/div>\n Fans at Roland Garros burst into 20 seconds of cheers and chants during the match between Rafael Nadal<\/strong> and Austin Krajicek<\/strong> when Marchand overhauled Kristof Milak<\/strong> to the 200 fly title. That was repeated across countless venues whenever the 22-year-old took to the water.<\/p>\n He played a role in the Closing Ceremony; his image was wherever you turned in the French capital and he has been in demand for interviews ever since.<\/p>\n Bowman has seen it before with Phelps.<\/p>\n Marchand set out on the World Cup tour where he headed the men\u2019s overall rankings before withdrawing from the short-course worlds in Budapest, citing exhaustion.<\/p>\n That was a decision Bowman supported and speaking to reporters in the Hungarian capital, he said: \u201cI think he got a taste of what his new life is like after the Olympics and it\u2019s difficult, right?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very stressful to prepare and swim in the Olympic Games and do the performances but then all the things that came after it, while they were wonderful take a toll on you, right? So, I think he needs a little chance to regroup mentally and get back into training so that we can get started the first of the year working towards the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n Bowman wasn\u2019t at all shocked at the change in Marchand\u2019s life. Casting his mind back to Paris, he said: \u201cNo, I know exactly what it\u2019s like, I told him.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Paris I said \u2018I am going to get on a plane tomorrow and I know exactly what it\u2019s going to be like for you but you don\u2019t know anything about it and you just keep your head on your shoulders and be patient and don\u2019t get frustrated with all the attention because it\u2019s a lot and it was.<\/p>\n \u201cI can help him manage it but at the end of the day he just has to learn how to incorporate that into his life.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s difficult, it\u2019s sad in some ways because before \u2013 same thing with Michael \u2013 when you are coming up the ladder you have some sense of privacy at times and he will not have that unless he\u2019s in a house somewhere. When he goes out in France, everyone is going to know him and it\u2019s a wonderful thing but it comes with a responsibility and he\u2019ll learn to manage with it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Bob Bowman: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia<\/p><\/div>\n The five-time world champion has turned professional and will train at Austin, Texas, where Bowman is the director of swimming and diving and the head men\u2019s coach.<\/p>\n Bowman didn’t speak of Marchand\u2019s plans in the coming months into Singapore worlds and beyond into LA 2028 except to say that he himself would likely be on the USA coaching team in 2028.<\/p>\n He described 2025 as an adjustment year for Marchand and \u201cabout resetting and getting used to his new dynamic\u201d with the World Championships the major meet of the year in Singapore in July.<\/p>\n Of whether life will be easier for Marchand in Austin, Bowman concluded: \u201cYes. It will be. He will have much less attention on daily basis. The average Texan isn\u2019t going around thinking about swimmers, they\u2019re concerned about football!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bob Bowman Talks Leon Marchand & Life In The Spotlight Bob Bowman knew from experience how the life of Leon Marchand\u00a0would change after he won four gold medals in Paris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7575,"featured_media":593522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122074,7],"tags":[10818,77336,77661,6302,57812,27585,77056],"class_list":["post-602761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-europe","category-usa","tag-bob-bowman","tag-leon-marchand","tag-maxime-grousset","tag-michael-phelps","tag-paris-2024","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-yohann-ndoye-brouard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/20240728_AMAS_MA76197-700x500.jpg\")
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