Leon Marchand Plans to Race the World Cup Series in the Fall

French star swimmer Leon Marchand is expected to race at the World Aquatics World Cup circuit this fall – in a big departure from his coach Bob Bowman‘s prior superstar athletes, who mostly eschewed the money-heavy fall tour.

Bowman said in a press conference Friday that after the Olympics, Marchand would remain home in Europe and focus on training for the World Cup.

The pared-back tour will this year feature three meets in Asia.

  • Shanghai, China, 18-20 October
  • Incheon, South Korea, 24-26 October
  • Singapore,  31 October – 2 November

All three meets will also be in the traditional short course meters format.

This is a tour that Michael Phelps, who Bowman coached, never leaned fully into. He swam two meets in 2009 and two in 2011; in 2009, he struggled, only picking up a few medals and no wins. In 2011, though, he showed off how good he could have been in this format, winning four individual events across the two meets and picking up enough points to finish 5th overall in the standings of the then-seven meet series.

Phelps was a great short course swimmer, though he was almost-wholly focused on long course throughout his career. Marchand, meanwhile, is now the fastest man ever in the 500 free, 200 breast, 200 IM, and 400 IM in yards, and is a five-time World Champion in long course. That includes breaking the World Record in the 400 IM at the 2023 World Championships – a record that Phelps held for over 20 years.

The World Cup last year offered around $1.1 million in prize money, with the maximum for any one individual being $136,000, plus a $10,000 bonus for breaking a World Record or winning the same event at all three legs of the series.

Additionally, if Marchand’s Olympics go the way he’s hoping them to, with 3-4 individual gold medals a real possibility, it would be an opportunity to spread his brand in the world’s most-populated continent. After his record-setting 8 Olympic gold medals in 2008 in Beijing, Phelps’ popularity in the country got mixed reviews from American media. The New York Times ran a headline that “Phelps’s Splash Fails to Stir Chinese” on the same day that ABC News ran a headline of “Chinese in Awe of American Swimmer Michael Phelps“.

In the interim, China’s interest in the Olympic Games generally, and swimming specifically, has grown substantially. The same is true in Singapore thanks to the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medalist Joseph Schooling in 2016.

Marchand plans to return to Austin to begin preparations for next summer’s World Championships in January, painting a new model for modern pro swimmers where the fall can be an opportunity to hone racing and earning money before the spring turns to a long course focus for the big meets in the summer. It is sort of an abbreviated rewrite of the American collegiate system, where swimmers focus on racing (a lot) in yards until March before shifting focus to the bigger pool.

That is a model that has worked well for Marchand so far.

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Hank
4 months ago

Does Leon have an academic degree from ASU or will he complete it at UT? Just curious how that works.

Bevo
4 months ago

$136K for a month of swimming not bad, but when you compare it to a golfer in one weekend, we have a ways to go. Maybe we can find more big time sponsors like golf. There should be a lot of folks hit the circuit after Paris.

swimapologist
Reply to  Bevo
4 months ago

Yeah but golfers do interviews.

Seems silly but…while both golf and swimming are often-boring, slow-moving sports, at least golf is trying. Swimming just said “same shit, bigger shit hole” and thought this would solve all of its problems. Gold is adding technology, they allow and even require their athletes to have personalities and show them to the public.

In swimming, the governing orgs actively discourage their athletes from speaking to the press for fear it might rock them off their pedestals mentally.

All of their coaches will roll their eyes and say this isn’t important, but it is.

GO ASU
4 months ago

Always good to see the pitchfork on him. ASU legend forever ❤️

John26
4 months ago

But when is he going to decide between the 200fly/breast

etsan
Reply to  John26
4 months ago

I think he’ll enter both and decides during the Olympics, depending on how he feels and how his rivals are swimming. There’s no point making decisions prior to that.

Genevieve Nnaji
Reply to  John26
4 months ago

He’s swimming both.

bobthebuilderrocks
4 months ago

His 200/400 IM and 200 breast SCY times conversations to absolutely monstrous SCM times. 1:46/3:51 IMs and 1:58 2 breast. He would wreck the SCM WR List.

PFA
Reply to  bobthebuilderrocks
4 months ago

Idk if he’ll go that fast in most of those if he did wow but I wouldn’t be shocked if he still smashed those WR’s do any of his Free’s convert to anything crazy?

Last edited 4 months ago by PFA
bobthebuilderrocks
Reply to  PFA
4 months ago

I feel like even if he’s off, his peak is so much greater than what those WR’s are currently that he’ll be comfortably under if he were to choose.

I haven’t converted the 200 free, but his 500 is a couple tenths faster than Agnel’s WR.

1650 Onetrick
Reply to  PFA
4 months ago

By my conversions, I got that these times:

200 free – 1:38.07
400 free – 3:29.58

Very easily WR for both

Troyy
Reply to  1650 Onetrick
4 months ago

Easy peasy. 😜

Boxall's Railing
Reply to  bobthebuilderrocks
4 months ago

1:58-high in the 200 breast seems feasible. But the IM times there are a little lofty…bet he could go 1:47-1:48 in 200 IM and 3:53-3:54 in the 400 IM, which still would be nuts!

Greenangel
4 months ago

I really hope he will be allowed by Bowman to participate at the SCM World Championships in Budapest next December. Many titles to get and many records to break.

Last edited 4 months ago by Greenangel
Genevieve Nnaji
Reply to  Greenangel
4 months ago

Why would Bowman not allow him?

Marchand – Bowman relationship is not the same as Phelps – Bowman

Facts
4 months ago

With the #1 pick in the 2024 ISL draft, the New York Breakers select…

Calswimboy
Reply to  Facts
3 months ago

Is ISL actually gonna resume?? I hope soo!!!!

BingBopBam
4 months ago

Gonna make what might seem like a bold statement here: In terms of SCM, I think Marchand only gets the 400IM and 200BR World Records. Would love to be proven wrong though!

Last edited 4 months ago by BingBopBam
Mr Piano
Reply to  BingBopBam
4 months ago

His underwaters and breaststroke are too good. He’ll get the 200 IM and 200 breast. He could probably get 200 fly too.

Last edited 4 months ago by Mr Piano
Sapiens Ursus
Reply to  BingBopBam
4 months ago

Indeed as impressive as Marchand’s scy exploits have been, Prime Lochte is prime Lochte, those SCY records largely just aren’t the same as their SCM counterparts

Boxall's Railing
Reply to  Sapiens Ursus
4 months ago

For 200 IM, 1:36.31 SCY is way faster than 1:49.63 SCM, and it’s not even close. Anyone who says otherwise is not familiar with both formats.

bobthebuilderrocks
Reply to  Sapiens Ursus
4 months ago

What do you think prime Lochte could’ve gone in a 200 SCY IM?

HeGetsItDoneAgain
Reply to  bobthebuilderrocks
4 months ago

Something around Leon’s level. Unfortunately prime Lochte came like 5 years after he graduated.

Derp
Reply to  bobthebuilderrocks
4 months ago

A 1:40.08 or .07 I can’t remember

Swammer
Reply to  Derp
4 months ago

That was in 2006, peak Lochte was 2011-2012

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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