Bob Bowman Details How He Coached Leon Marchand to 4 Gold Medals at Paris Olympics

SwimSwam sat down with Bob Bowman, Director of Swimming & Diving at Texas and coach of Olympic superstar Leon Marchand, to debrief his experience in Paris.

At the top of the podcast, Bowman reveals that Marchand looked “very average” in practices two weeks before the Olympics. Apparently this is a trend for Marchand, as Bowman said he also looked that way before the best short course meet of his career, the 2023 NCAA Championships in Minnesota.

There was a public practice at their training camp in Vichy, France where Leon suited up in front of 1,000 fans in which Bowman said he looked “very good on that”.

Bowman continues on with stories of Leon throughout the meet and what it was like seeing his other non-French athletes have success. He ends with a preview of the upcoming season for Texas swimming, including a quad-meet with Texas, Virginia, Arizona State, and NC State.

In This Story

41
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

41 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
M C
3 months ago

Bob has been a great addition to Team France.

Troyy
Reply to  M C
3 months ago

I heard he’s gonna join Team Australia next.

John26
3 months ago

When Bob said he wasn’t sure Leon was going to do the double… why didn’t you ask which event he was going to swim?

Bignowhere
3 months ago

So, obviously a bunch of his swimmers, especially Leon and Regan did great at the Olympics. But it seems like there were also some who did not. Chase, Luca, Simone, Ryan Held for example. I would have been interested to hear what happened with each of them as well.

Last edited 3 months ago by Bignowhere
Facts
Reply to  Bignowhere
3 months ago

A lot of those swimmers are on the older side and Luca has been plagued with injuries the last few years

bobthebuilderrocks
Reply to  Bignowhere
3 months ago

Chase is a 30yr old swimming 4 IM, Luca went back to Doughty at DART, the back and forth with Simone must have played a role imo, and Held is Herbie’s swimmer

Bull Puoy
3 months ago

Appreciate the nod to Paige Madden’s 800 in this interview. For the USA, the usual tendency for the elite Olympic level middle distance swimmers who deal with a setback is to then just double down on the hopes of securing future relay roster spots (suddenly, everyone becomes a 100/200 free specialist). An athlete in the mid-20s here went the opposite direction. 7 seconds drop off the PB AFTER a Trials meet is insane, let alone at this age. She and Bob have completely changed the game, and have shown others something like this is possible.

Sharkspeed
3 months ago

Did Bob make Leon another asthma victim?

Meeeee
Reply to  Sharkspeed
3 months ago

what do you mean? a reason/excuse to use an inhaler?

Sharkspeed
Reply to  Sharkspeed
3 months ago

Someone copied my nickname

Gail Jones
3 months ago

I know! I saw that Bob Bowerman was only interested in his prized protege: I got it!! He is so proud of Leon Marchand!! By the way, what is Marchand ‘s field of higher learning ‘ his academic studies besides competing with the AMERICANS and other international swimmers for the NCAA championships of 2025?!!
Does Bob interested in the AMERICANS, or just the French Leon Marchand, hmmm 🤔?!!
Because I only hear as an American, French Leon Marchand this: French Leon Marchand that, Bob Bowerman ‘s protege ONLY!!! But yet, still coming to America, but Bob’s new legacy is French Leon Marchand and non American athletes for great support and success, I got it!!

Hillbilly
Reply to  Gail Jones
3 months ago

Zip it up when you’re done

25fly
Reply to  Gail Jones
3 months ago

2/10 rage bait

Susan
Reply to  Gail Jones
3 months ago

Wow! Leon is a once in a generation athlete..Most athletes, and coaches get it. Yeah, there will be the ” what about me” athletes. Colemans questions were about Leon, and Bob answered them..if the interview had been about Regan, they would have gone into depth about her. The fact that Bob has produced the two greatest swimmers of all time, is frankly a testament to his expertise and vision. It was a great interview!

Sharkspeed
Reply to  Susan
3 months ago

Bowman is a great coach for sure, and Marchand a great athlete,
but Marchand is still far away of the greatest of all time conversation

Facts
Reply to  Sharkspeed
3 months ago

He’s pretty far from Phelps, Ledecky, and Sjostrom foresure but he’s already tied for 2nd in individual Olympic golds for male swimmers so he’s prob starting to inch his way into the conversation for second best male swimmer of all time. The only thing preventing him from being second best male swimmer to Phelps is longevity but if he has another dominant quad that leads to an individual gold or multiple, he’ll stand alone as #2 in male individual golds which would prob put him in the drivers seat for male vice Goat in swimming

Admin
Reply to  Facts
3 months ago

Relays will always hold him back. Even though we objectively know that Americans and to a lesser extent Australian or Chinese swimmers get sort of a ‘raw numbers’ boost from relays that isn’t available to swimmers from all countries, those raw numbers still weigh heavy on a lot of opinions in debates like this.

Fake Gregg Troy
Reply to  Gail Jones
3 months ago

His field was actually computer science if you were wondering

bigNowhere
Reply to  Gail Jones
3 months ago

Ma’am, this is a Wendy’s

Scotty P
Reply to  Gail Jones
3 months ago

How many shots deep were you?

Facts
3 months ago

“Slept for 11 hours”- guess I got one thing in common with an Olympic champ

cant kick cant pull
3 months ago

bb still relevant post mp

bobthebuilderrocks
Reply to  cant kick cant pull
3 months ago

damn, almost like he knows what he’s doing

cant kick cant pull
Reply to  bobthebuilderrocks
3 months ago

big bob rocks

About Coleman Hodges

Coleman Hodges

Coleman started his journey in the water at age 1, and although he actually has no memory of that, something must have stuck. A Missouri native, he joined the Columbia Swim Club at age 9, where he is still remembered for his stylish dragon swim trunks. After giving up on …

Read More »