From our special correspondent,
Parallel business idea to launch around the Léon Marchand phenomenon: a network of clandestine betting at the edge of the pools during each race of the French cyborg. As soon as the first pour has started, predictions are flying in all directions. “We’re going for a big 4’07” or a small 4’08”, tries one man. A little further on, children let themselves be carried away by their carelessness and bet on a good “3’59”” after the champion’s first solid 50 meters. Missed. Marchand will finally win the French championships in the specialty in “only” 4’10″62. Enough to ensure qualification for the Olympics, set at 4’12 and dust, not to satisfy the ambitions of the boy, who hoped to swim in 4 ’09.
“The end of the Marchand phenomenon? », jokes a colleague in the mixed zone, on the verge of a dump: the Toulouse resident arrived at the same time in front of the journalists. He didn’t hear any of the joke, still happy. The neo-Texan didn’t look like he was laughing, despite the title and the minimums. His performance, average by his standards, is quite far from the best performance of the year achieved on the night from Sunday to Monday by the American Carson Foster (4’07” sec 64). “The time is not good, the sensations are bad too. ” It has the merit of being clear.
“We’re going to rectify that”
As for why, he himself knows nothing, but is not too worried, nor is his former coach Nicolas Castel, relay in France for current coach Bob Bowman.
“ “He is keen to do better. Now, I think he’s really in a phase between recovery where he also feels perhaps a little differently than he usually did at the French championships, where he arrived a little more loaded, perhaps. be a little more tired and therefore also a little more relaxed. I’ve felt it a little heavier since this morning. But here we are, we’re going to rectify that. » »
Without competition at his side in the Chartres basin, Marchand undoubtedly suffered from a lack of stimulation and too much desire to manage, before the challenge which awaits him in two days. On Wednesday, after a day off “sleeping and swimming”, he will double the 200m breaststroke and the 200m butterfly. “I still have three races left, I will try to do better,” he promises. And Castel concludes: “It will be a real challenge for him. There, I think there will be no doubt about his commitment to racing. »