With the 200-meter butterfly and 200 breaststroke finals scheduled right after each other at the Paris 2024 Olympics, the assumption was that French star Leon Marchand would have to pick between those two events for his lineup.
But behind the scenes, Marchand’s coaches — both French technical director Julien Issoulié and Arizona State head coach Bob Bowman — have been lobbying since last year’s World Championships for an Olympic schedule change that would make it easier for him to tackle the rare 200 fly/200 breast double in late July.
“We asked that one of the two events are scheduled at the start of the session and the other towards the end,” Issoulie told French media Le Monde. “We all got involved, Bowman had the same discussion as us with World Aquatics.
“The international federation had never encountered this problem because until now, no very high level swimmer had done the 200m breaststroke and the 200m butterfly,” Issoulié said. “They thought about it within the technical committee, we did everything to make them aware that it would be good to postpone the tests.”
Le Monde reported Friday that the organizing committee that makes the Olympic schedule informed the French Swimming Federation (FFN) this week that the semifinals of the 200 fly and 200 breast will take place about an hour apart on July 30, at around 8:40 p.m. and 9:40 p.m., respectively. What’s unclear is Le Monde’s framing of that scheduling as different from the initial Olympic calendar, where the 200 breast semifinals were three events after the 200 fly semifinals. Nothing in the Le Monde article suggests that the 200 breast final has been moved away from the 200 fly final — they’re still only about 15 minutes apart on July 31.
Issoulié said any choices about Marchand’s Olympic program will likely be saved for the last minute.
“We have optimized the program, if that makes it so much the better,” Issoulié said. “He may not win everything, but if he manages to get two medals in these two races, it will still be exceptional.
“Indeed, it could change the situation but for the moment, we are keeping this question in suspense,” he continued. “We know very well how it happens: if we say that he is doing four [individual] races and ultimately we don’t line him up for one of them, we will hear, ‘Léon is not doing well.’ The strategy is for him to be qualified everywhere, but we leave the choice until the last moment.”
The Tokyo Olympic schedule had the men’s 200 fly final on the same day as the men’s 200 breast semifinal, but the Paris Olympic calendar scheduled both events for the same day — prelims, semifinals, and the final. Making that double even more challenging for Marchand is the fact that he might also have the 4×200 free relay after the 200 fly/200 breast semifinals on July 30.
Last year, Leon Marchand had the fastest 200 fly time in the world (1:52.43), but Kristof Milak (1:52.58) was only .15 seconds slower at Hungarian Nationals last April before skipping the 2023 World Championships to focus on his mental health
Marchand didn’t swim the 200 breast at Worlds last year, but his time of 2:06.59 at French Nationals last June would have won bronze behind Zac Stubblety-Cook (2:06.40) and new world record holder Qin Haiyang (2:05.48).
So I previously was looking at
https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/swimming-2024-paris-olympic-games
where it shows the 200 breast final right after the 200 fly final. However
https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/schedule/swimming
shows 4 events between the two, with a 1.5 hour break in between.
I wonder if they changed the ordering of the events in that session for Marchand?
Even with that break, I’m not sure it would be wise for him to attempt that double.
Sorry, I think I didn’t read the article carefully. Looks like they did in fact change the ordering of the events on that day.
https://staging.swimswam.com/paris-olympic-schedule-change-opens-the-door-for-marchands-200-fly-200-breast-double/
Thanks Braden, somehow I missed this news.
….
Hmmm am I developing some annoyance towards Marchand and Bowman (and this French dude I’ve never heard of) now?
This is selfish as all get out. Like, I get it, he’s versatile, but are they expecting the OLYMPICS to bend over and change their entire schedule for the convenience of one swimmer?
We don’t see Todd DeSorbo lobbying WA to get the 200 breast and 100 free on different days for Kate Douglass. It’s her choice to swim them.
It’s Leon’s choice to swim the two 200s. Not the Olympics’ fault he wants to do that.
Honestly, I thought that headline was satire before I clicked on it. I’m honestly really surprised Coleman is… Read more »
I have absolutely no issues with a coach advocating for the best situation for their swimmers, in fact I would expect it.
I do have an issue with an organization bowing to one particular request whose sole purpose is to benefit one swimmer.
Selfishly, I kinda want them to do it in order to see Marchand at peak performance.
Unselfishly, it should not happen.
Vive la France!
When did we start manipulating the schedule for swimmers? If Olympic committee responsible for this then it should be an open playing field for all swimmers n athletes! In all sports. This is not an age group meet it’s the Olympics. Eg. if your athletes get up late does that mean we change the start time to accommodate them? No. So now coach s and organizers can manipulate for performance! That’s not ethical. The Olympic Games was designed for all. Not one or 2 athletes. Or if conflict to make it Fair have 1 event a day for all and then the coaches n athletes can pic n choose to satisfy their needs. Not happening so ethically leave schedule the… Read more »
Perhaps the solution is to invite comment before the schedule is set then we would be more likely to see an optimal schedule. When it’s done in isolation obvious unnecessary clashes occur. I cannot understand why the 200BK and 200IM are always placed so close. It’s not a common combination but not rare either, the most obvious examples being Ryan Lochte and Kaylee McKeown. You could put them at different ends of the schedule and it wouldn’t disadvantage anyone.
For me the question is that change should be made for the benefit for the public spectator or just a favor for a single athlete. In my opinion having the possibility to make to transform an event – which otherwise would be a one man show – to a real competitive event it definitely worth considering. Just they did to change the entire schedule to benefit one particular country’s spectator vs the entire swimming world ( including both athletes and spectators) and it was a recurrent issue
To be fair, optimizing the schedule to fit the local hero and medal contender in both events at the Olympic Games is absolutely for the benefit of the spectator imho.
Sports is entertainment and swimmers and swammers sometimes forget that. So, I’m with you. The spectacle should be the driving the force. I just think it’d be more entertaining to the casual viewer to follow the story of “Marchand’s Olympics” than the story of “this is everyone’s game(s)”.
And it does build suspense.
Otherwise, the excuse would already be there “schedule was shit. WA sucks. Not my fault.”
With the change, the ball is in his court…
Wow…. This is weak from Leon. Everyone knows how much I love Leon but my mind about him changed after this. Y’all know how much I dislike Phelps and criticize him, but he would never do something like this. And competed in more events. Is this a weak generation thing or what?
I can’t believe I agree with Jalen
Even if the schedule clears for the double doing it could be a big mistake. Doing both would make it very hard to win both considering winning one of those events is hard enough. Plus it will take a toll out of him and potentially jeopardize his 200 IM later on which is a potential all out war against Wang Shun.