Léon Marchand ‘Madness’ washes over NCAA swimming finals ahead of 2024 Olympics

In American university speech, it’s called “March Madness.” It’s the final event of the college sporting season, when the country’s best students compete against each other in their respective disciplines. In and around Indiana University’s Natatorium, it has been renamed “Merchant Madness.”

Two resounding records were set in two days. As soon as Léon Marchand took off from the starting block, he was the only one in sight. Or to be more precise, everyone but him was visible: The athlete from Toulouse disappeared for long seconds below the surface as he made his endless strokes, which were even more spectacular in a 25-yard (22.86-meter) pool.

On the evening of Thursday, March 28, in the 500-yard freestyle event, after just two lengths (out of 20), he had already secured the race. Bob Bowman’s pupil eventually shaved nearly four seconds off his own record (4:02.31), leaving the next runner-up more than four seconds behind him. “It was a race in which I had fun. The NCAAs are an environment I love, with a great atmosphere, and I also swim for my team. Tonight, I didn’t really know what my limit was,” reacted the 21- year-old swimmer, as comfortable in the English language as he was in the water.

Just the day before, he had already become the first man in history to swim a relay heat under 1 min 29 in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

With his curls still damp and barely out of the pool, Zalan Sarkany described the gap in power between him and Marchand, his Arizona State University (ASU) teammate. “He’s one of the strongest competitors, he goes incredibly fast in the water. I can’t really compete with him. Well, not yet,” said the 20-year-old Hungarian, praising his “lion’s mentality.”

‘Perfection in the water’

Since his arrival in August 2021 in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix, in the US state of Arizona, the “Frenchie” has been as comfortable as a fish in water, despite being at the edge of the desert. Among the 55,000 students on the university’s campus, the five-time world champion blends in like just another student. “Sweet” and “kind” were the two adjectives on everyone’s lips when describing his personality. The 21-year-old’s discreet nature contrasts with his role as a lynchpin of the Sun Devils, his team’s name.

Sporting an “ASU” sweatshirt draped over her shoulders, Patrick Colson’s mother Elizabeth Colson remembered that “the first year Patrick arrived [in Tempe], he was a fast swimmer; but the following year, when Léon arrived, his improvement was noticeable. My son told us: ‘He’s changed the way I swim.'” The cheerful 50-something woman overflowed with superlatives to describe Marchand, a swimming phenomenon raised on the banks of the Garonne river in southwest France: “Watching him swim is a delight for the eyes, it’s perfection in the water. He’s simply magnificent.”

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