Who is Leon Marchand? Meet the French swimmer aiming to become the face of the Olympics

Marchand, coached by an old mentor of Michael Phelps, broke the Olympic great’s final world record last year

Leon Marchand after competing in San Antonio in April (Getty Images)

Leon Marchand arrives at Paris 2024 with the most pressure of any swimmer, as he looks to follow in the footsteps of Michael Phelps to become the face of his home Olympics.

Coached by Phelps’s former mentor Bob Bowman, Marchand broke the final world record of the most successful Olympian ever last summer and will now look to claim a first Olympic title at the age of 22.

In all, Marchand is competing in four individual events, looking to join Phelps, Mark Spitz, and Kristin Otto as the only swimmers to claim four individual golds at the same Games.

And for Alain Bernard, France’s most successful Olympic swimmer and a double gold medallist, the pressure facing Marchand is like nothing he has ever seen.

“I can’t imagine the pressure he has on his shoulders,” said Bernard, who is working at his home Games as part of the Eurosport/discovery+ team, having previously won the 100m freestyle in Beijing in 2008.

“I wouldn’t want to be in his place. But with his coach and the last two years when he has competed, it’s been a good thing for him. In Tokyo, in 2021, it was good for him to be there. It was his first international competition, and it was the Olympic Games. Between 2021 and today, I think he has learned a lot about himself. He can measure the pressure, and I don’t think it will be something that will affect his objectives. And I think Bob and all the French staff around him will help.”

Marchand reached the final of the 400m individual medley in Tokyo as a teenager but has since established himself as arguably the best male swimmer in the world, with five world titles in the last three years.

That included breaking Phelps’s 400m medley world record in Fukuoka last summer, with the American in awe of his performance while commentating on the race.

On Sunday, Marchand will hope to claim a first Olympic gold medal in the event, while later in the meet he will also compete in the 200m individual medley, the 200m butterfly and the 200m breaststroke, having won world titles in the first two last summer.

To succeed, Bernard believes that Marchand needs to ignore any focus on times and world records and instead simply centre all his attention on medals. “The Olympics is the last medal that he is missing,” Bernard added. “I think the most important thing for him is getting it right in the final. It’s not about the records.

“A lot of the journalists in France and around the world want to see him swim under four minutes in the 400m individual medley, but that is not the only objective. The only objective should be to bring many medals. Two gold medals would be OK, three will be difficult – especially with the schedule. The most important thing for him is the place and not the record.”

Marchand’s 400m individual medley will be one of the highlights of the meet and is part of a thrilling evening of action on Sunday. That is also when Adam Peaty will bid to emulate Phelps and become only the second man to win the same swimming event at three successive Games.

Peaty has not had a straightforward time of it since Tokyo, having not competed at the World Championships because of injury and then a period away from the pool as he dealt with depression and alcohol problems. In 2024, however, he appears to be getting back to his best and will go head to head with China’s Qin Haiyang, who claimed a clean sweep of breaststroke world titles in Japan last year.

Team GB’s Adam Peaty is among the swimming stars at the Paris Olympics (Getty Images)

Peaty is the current world record holder but is in an unfamiliar position, having gone into each of the last two Games as the overwhelming favourite.

But according to Therese Alshammar, one of three swimmers to have competed at six Olympics, the hardships that Peaty has gone through may serve to extend his career. The Swedish great, who won three Olympic medals in Sydney, is backing Peaty to come out on top in his bid to make history.

She said: “Some hardship can be good because if you have trials, whenever you hit a small bump in the road, you will try to get smarter and develop more. Most athletes benefit from that and then they can extend their career. It gives them drive to get better again.

“I swam alongside Mel [Marshall, Peaty’s coach], so I have good faith and I know his coach well. He seems to be in a happy place and a stable environment. He doesn’t strike me as a person who has trouble with nerves or big events. I think he will come in and be very dangerous. He’s my favourite for the win, it will be fantastic if he manages to do that.”

Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics.