Sports
What makes Leon Marchand a superstar? He's smaller, lighter and unbelievable underwater
Leon Marchand is an enigma.
Over the past eight days, he has produced one of the best Olympic pool displays. It featured an unprecedented double gold in the 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly.
Only one athlete had ever made the final in both strokes over any distance. That was Mary Sears in 1956, with the American winning bronze in the 100m butterfly and finishing seventh in the 200m breaststroke.
Marchand, who also won the 200m and 400m individual medleys, took four individual golds in four Olympic record times. Those performances are not normal, even by elite standards. The 22-year-old is the fourth swimmer and first French Olympian with four individual golds in one Games — joining the United States’ Mark Spitz (1972), East Germany’s Kristin Otto (1988) and the U.S.’s Michael Phelps (in 2004 and 2008).
The Marchand-Phelps comparisons write themselves. Marchand’s coach at Arizona State University, Bob Bowman, previously coached Phelps. In early 2023, Bowman said, “Leon is reminding me of Michael in 2003.” Bowman was talking about what Leon swam, not how he swam it, praising his ability to produce fast race times despite high training volumes.
Physically, Marchand is more like Spitz than Phelps. Phelps is six centimetres (2.4in) taller (193cm versus 187cm) and raced seven kilograms heavier (84kg compared to 77kg) than the Frenchman. Marchand isn’t matching the American’s 79-inch wingspan. Part of Marchand’s allure is how he bucks the trend of Olympic swimmers getting bigger and taller.
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A 2020 paper collated nine studies analysing Olympic swimmers between 1968 and 2016. It was “advantageous for swimmers to be older, taller, and heavier”. From Mexico City in 1968 to Rio de Janeiro in 2016, world-class men’s 200m swimmers (Marchand’s favourite distance) changed drastically: on average, they became 8.6cm taller and 7.9kg heavier.
The authors of that paper spoke of the “natural selection” of athletes into events based on their body types and suitability for strokes. Freestyle swimmers were the biggest, all about power and big, long limbs. Butterfly swimmers were the smallest, with back and breaststroke swimmers in the middle. Imagine a Venn diagram where Phelps sits in the overlapping free/fly/back rings, and Marchand in breast/fly/back.
Francisco Cuenca-Fernandez, a PhD graduate from the aquatics lab at the University of Granada and a professor with a research specialism in race analysis, explains how Marchand’s atypical size is advantageous.
“Swimmers are usually large because a large body is associated with a long lever arm, which is very beneficial as it allows propulsive surfaces, like the hands, to stay underwater longer, applying force.”
But that bulk is a double-edged sword. “This has a downside,” says Cuenca-Fernandez. “A large body can also generate much more resistance. In Marchand’s case, his events have always been middle-distance — the 200m and 400m — which indicates that a large, muscular body would have been very energy-consuming.
“We haven’t seen him compete individually in the 100m butterfly or 100m breaststroke and he hasn’t stood out in his freestyle relay performances either. He is a swimmer who doesn’t stand out for his height or musculature, but this makes him incredibly efficient.”
Efficiency.
It was the difference between Marchand and Hungary’s Kristof Milak in the 200m butterfly final, where sprint specialist Milak led at 150m but Marchand’s back-end speed saw him close hard. Cuenca-Fernandez uses that word repeatedly to describe Marchand.
“He moves easily and this saves a lot of energy. This is where he’s making the difference,” says Cuenca-Fernandez, who roots Marchand’s efficiency in a combination of his training under Bowman and innate physiology, a virtue of having former Olympian parents.
It is how Marchand breaks his opponents in the medley, with his strongest strokes first (fly) and third (breaststroke) and his weakest second (back) and last (free). “This efficiency is maximized in butterfly and breaststroke, which are strokes where it’s challenging to maintain cadence since the body is constantly accelerating and decelerating, leading to quick fatigue,” says Cuenca-Fernandez.
Marchand in the semi-final of the 200m butterfly event in Paris (Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images)
Breaststroke is leg-dominant, too, so guys with big upper bodies and wingspans benefit less. “It’s evident that his race strategy is based on being strong in these two strokes,” says Cuenca-Fernandez, explaining that Marchand’s natural strengths work tactically.
“Start strong in butterfly, using powerful undulation (wave-like movements with the body). In backstroke, maintain position, since I can breathe much more easily than in the other strokes. In breaststroke, I take advantage of my underwater efficiency, both in the underwater phase after pushing off the wall and the gliding phase, and push hard again. In freestyle, I give whatever I have left, less fatigued than others.”
Marchand’s efficiency — combined with elite conditioning — makes him so good underwater. He glides and kicks like nobody else. In the 200m breaststroke final, he was 1.8m up on second-place Zac Stubblety-Cook at the final turn but stayed underwater for so long that he surfaced after his nearest opponent even further in the lead.
In the 400m individual medley, Marchand spent 100m of that gliding underwater, around one-fifth more than his opponents — Phelps spent 77m underwater in the same race in Beijing in 2008. Marchand spent 14.77m of the allowed 15m underwater off the final turn when he set the 400m individual medley world record in Japan last year.
“That incredible underwater swimming is a characteristic of swimmers trained by Bowman,” says Cuenca-Fernandez. Even Phelps is astounded by Marchand’s glides. Bowman once said they were “not a subject, they have always been excellent”. Marchand is built to swim underwater, with what Bowman calls a torpedo-like body and “no hips”.
Cuenca-Fernandez says: “The depth of his underwater undulation stands out — this trajectory towards the bottom of the pool after the push-off from each turn.
“This provides an advantage — as long as you have the lungs for it — the reduction of wave resistance. When a group of swimmers reach the wall at full speed to turn, there is a mass of water dragged that ends up crashing against the wall.
“If your turn is too close to the surface and you are a little ahead of your competitors, that mass of water hits you just as you are flipping or starting your push-off and slows you down. However, if after your turn you go to the bottom of the pool, that mass of water passes over you and you manage to avoid it.”
It depends on the athlete — specifically their build and strength in swimming on the surface — but underwater swimming is typically faster as turbulence and drag are reduced (although this doesn’t apply to free, where surface swimming is faster than back, fly and breaststroke).
In one of Cuenca-Fernandez’s studies, assessing performance variability of swimmers going through championship rounds, they identified that the push-off in the first five metres from the turns was the only consistent variable. Things like stroke volume, start, and underwater kick all changed.
“The ones who reached the finals were always faster, they had better underwater gliding skills and offered less resistance,” he says. “The speed of that push-off was always the same for a given swimmer. I’m sure that if we analyze Marchand in depth, he would be one of the fastest at that point since he is a swimmer who generates very little resistance.”
Marchand’s style is something psychologists call an underdog effect — when athletes succeed despite disadvantages. Often these are sociocultural, economic or geographical, none of which apply to Marchand, but he is a fourth-quartile baby (May) and, physically, matured late.
Santiago Veiga Fernandez, a former head coach of the Spanish Swimming National Youth Team, with a PhD in swimming race analysis, explains it. Marchand, he says, benefitted from “great developmental work” by his French home coach Nicolas Castel from the Toulouse Dolphins club. During his junior years — 16 to 18 — Marchand developed the basic skills that allowed him to excel underwater.
“When competing at European or World Junior Championships, Marchand did not dominate. He was a bronze medallist at a couple of events (European bronze in 200m breaststroke and 400m individual medley; world bronze in 400m individual medley). His body was not fully developed, but he already showed great levels of skill for gliding and underwater swimming.”
He had to be good at gliding underwater — he didn’t have freestyle power or speed anywhere near that of Phelps. Marchand’s 100m free personal best is almost four seconds slower, although he’s a better freestyler than Phelps was a breaststroker (Marchand’s 200m personal best at breaststroke is more than five seconds faster than Phelps’).
Scheduling is a significant reason the breaststroke/fly double is unique, as they happen in the same evening session, which forces specialism in one (World Aquatics actually had to change the Olympic schedule to let Marchand attempt it).
Another reason, Veiga explains, is technique differences. “The kicking action in butterfly and breaststroke are quite the opposite and swimmers with a great range of motion in one stroke may not excel in the other.
“In breaststroke, you can only perform one underwater dolphin kick after diving off the block or pushing off the turning wall, whereas in butterfly, swimmers can perform multiple underwater dolphin kicks.”
These kicks require the feet to flex in different ways (because the arm strokes are different). It might seem small, but at the highest level, details make performance differences.
Marchand in the butterfly heats (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
And in the breaststroke final, emphasising the difference in technique (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Given his exponential progression since Tokyo, the thoughts of where Marchand might be in four years are scary. Improve his freestyle and the world records will tumble. Veiga says that the 200m breaststroke showed Marchand becoming a versatile racer, as he swam hard from the off to compensate for Stubblety-Cook’s fast final 50m, rather than winning it late himself.
Ultimately, Marchand has put French swimming in a better place. They didn’t take a gold in the pool at the last two Games and managed four medals combined in Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro, as many as Marchand has in Paris alone.
France’s golden boy has changed the face of swimming. There’s more than one way to win an Olympic gold. Or four…
(Top photo: Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
MLB faces DOJ investigation over Pride hats controversy
Major League Baseball is under a DOJ investigation following controversy over Pride-themed hats. The San Francisco Giants pitchers wrote Bible verses on rainbow caps, prompting an MLB warning and a DOJ statement questioning a ‘double standard’ for ‘Black Lives Matter’ patches versus religious inscriptions. This follows the York Revolution forfeiting a game due to players refusing Pride jerseys, highlighting free speech and religious liberty issues within sports.
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I’m glad we didn’t take the run line yesterday in the baseball game. We had the under eight for the game between the White Sox and Tigers, and it ended 4-3. The Tigers did pull off the win, but as I mentioned, it wasn’t justified that Detroit should be -250, even with Tarik Skubal on the mound. Today, we shift to the Chicago National League team as the Cubs host the Blue Jays.
The Toronto Blue Jays are a team I’ve written about probably more than most squads in the league. That’s not a complaint or anything, it just happens that I see a lot of value in their games. Most of that is because when they are favorites, they aren’t big favorites given their 37-39 record and rash of injuries to their pitching staff. When they are dogs, they are usually pretty small pups, offering little value, but that means the opposing favorite isn’t too high of a price.
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Pete Crow-Armstrong #4 of the Chicago Cubs rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run in the eighth inning during the game between the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on Saturday, May 30, 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Ali Overstreet/MLB Photos via Getty Images) (Ali Overstreet/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The Jays were blitzed by the Cubs yesterday, and they will need a strong start today from Patrick Corbin. The once highly touted hurler is just 2-3 with a 4.57 ERA and a 1.48 WHIP. He had a decent year with the Rangers, but seems to be struggling again, as he did in his time with the Nationals. Corbin is a little more reliable on the road, given that he has pitched 10 more innings and has allowed three fewer runs on the road than at home, leading to a 3.57 ERA. He hasn’t given the Blue Jays much lately, going just 11.2 innings in three starts and allowing 11 runs on 17 hits. Cubs hitters are very strong against him, batting .316 against him.
The Cubs are one of the more frustrating teams to watch this season. Perhaps that is me just saying that as a fan of the team, but they’ve had two 10-game winning streaks, and also a losing streak of 10 games. Since May 9, the team has gone 13-24. Sure, some of that can be attributed to injuries to their pitching staff — they have only two healthy starters from the beginning of the year. But, most of this needs to be placed on the hitting of the club. Nico Hoerner is batting .238, Ian Happ is at .228, and Dansby Swanson is a pathetic .177.
Toronto Blue Jays’ Ernie Clement hits a three-run home run during the third inning against the Baltimore Orioles in Toronto on June 6, 2026. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)
Still, the Cubs broke out the bats yesterday, and Pete Crow-Armstrong looks like the five-tool player from the first half of last season. If they can get some pitching, maybe they will be the dominant team we saw earlier this year. Today’s starter is Colin Rea, who has not been very good this month. He has made three starts, allowed 19 hits, and 13 earned runs over 14.2 innings pitched. He has, however, been much better at home with a 3.03 ERA in five starts (six appearances). Blue Jays hitters haven’t seen much of him, but are hitting .176 against Rea in 17 at-bats.
There is a clear player prop to play in this one. However, the bad news is that he is not on the list of options, so you might need to request or find him in a different book other than DraftKings. Michael Conforto is 12-for-36 against Corbin with seven extra-base hits, including five homers. I’d play him at 2+ total bases and at one homer as long as you can get +200 or better for the bases, and +700 for the homer prop.
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Pete Crow-Armstrong #4 of the Chicago Cubs reacts after getting hit by a pitch in the eighth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field on May 17, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Michael Hirschuber/Getty Images)
If you can’t find it, or they never post it (but I have to imagine they will give options once he is added to the lineup, and he absolutely should be, given his history), I still have a play. I’m taking the Cubs at -130 here. Rea isn’t the most reliable, but he should at least be decent here, and the Cubs will have the fresher bullpen. Give me the Cubs to win this one.
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For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024
Dalton Rushing was frustrated. He just chased a slider in the dirt — again. And this time, the game was on the line. The Dodgers were down to their last out. He was down to his last strike.
So he took a moment, took a breath, and looked to the Dodgers dugout.
The first person he spotted was Mookie Betts, who had just cut the Orioles’ lead to a run with a solo homer. Betts was locked in with Rushing, brimming with confidence, cheering him on.
“For a guy like that, a guy that’s lived in that moment, he’s succeeded in that moment, he’s failed in that moment, he knows what it feels like, it’s pretty special,” Rushing recounted.
Rushing’s eyes traveled along the railing, noting his teammates all on the top step, all relying on him.
He dug into the box, expecting the slider that Baltimore’s Ryan Helsley threw next — it was high, for a ball. Then Rushing got a fastball he could drive. And he did not miss.
The next moments in the Dodgers’ 6-5 walk-off win Friday were chaos.
Rushing lined a tying single into right field, giving Alex Call time to score from second. Call slid across the plate as the throw from Orioles right fielder Tyler O’Neill took for a long hop to catcher Samuel Basallo.
Basallo misjudged it, taking an unhurried shuffle up the line, before the ball glanced off his glove and rolled toward the Dodgers dugout.
Third base coach Dino Ebel waved home Ryan Ward, who scored standing up.
Manager Dave Roberts, who looked down at his card when the throw was in the air, was already thinking through extra innings when the crowd erupted again. He heard field coordinator Bob Geren shouting something like, “The run counts.”
The Dodgers (49-27) ran onto the field and swarmed Rushing, who had just reached second. They jumped and yelled as the Dodgers Stadium lights flashed around them.
“It was good to get Freddie [Freeman] a night off for being the guy in the middle for a change, you know?” Rushing said with a grin. “No, it’s a great feeling, and I think it honestly just feels great that we won that baseball game.”
For several innings, it looked like they wouldn’t.
Dalton Rushing celebrates after hitting a run-scoring single in the ninth to help lift the Dodgers to a 6-5 walk-off win over the Baltimore Orioles at Dodger Stadium.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers had jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, on a two-run single from Max Muncy in the first inning and an RBI double from Andy Pages in the second. Then their scoring dried up.
Rushing was having as frustrating of a night as anyone, with a line out and three strikeouts.
His first strikeout was part of a brutal sequence. The Dodgers loaded the bases with no outs in the third. Then Ward, Rushing and Alex Freeland, all went down swinging.
Rushing struck out on a slider in the dirt. And Orioles starter Trey Gibson got him to bite on the same putaway pitch in the fifth.
Rushing’s reactions steadily grew more animated, on the field and in the dugout.
Mookie Betts celebrates as he runs the bases after hitting a solo home run in the ninth inning Friday against the Orioles.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Alex Freeland signals safe after sliding past Baltimore catcher Samuel Basallo to score on a double by Andy Pages in the second inning Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“He plays with a fire under his ass,” Freeland said. “He gets after it. He expects nothing but the best for himself day in and day out, and that comes with it.”
Said Roberts: “After he … vents, he does a good job of collecting himself to get back into the next play, the next at-bat, catching.”
On Friday, he was catching Roki Sasaki, who faced just one batter over the minimum through five innings. But during the third time through the order, the Orioles finally figured him out and hit back-to-back home runs.
With two outs and a runner on, Sasaki yanked a splitter to the inside edge of the strike zone to Gunnar Henderson, who lifted it over the wall in right field. Pete Alonso then homered to left-center field on an inside fastball about belt high to tie the score.
“I thought he threw the baseball really well,” Roberts said. “I liked the way he competed. The fastball command was good. He was fantastic tonight.”
The Orioles (35-42) pulled ahead against the Dodgers bullpen. Will Klein surrendered a seventh-inning single to Jackson that sent two baserunners, including one inherited from Dodgers left-hander Jack Dreyer, across the plate.
Kyle Hurt and Blake Treinen threw clean eighth and ninth innings.
Finally, in the bottom of the ninth, Betts ended the Dodgers’ scoring drought. Then Muncy — later replaced by the pinch-running Call — and Ward drew walks.
With two outs, Rushing stepped up to the plate, fell behind in the count 0-2 and reset.
“I look in the dugout, and all those guys care about is that next pitch, and the next pitch after that, and the next pitch after that,” Rushing said. “They just want you to win one pitch at a time.”
So, that’s what he did.
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The referees have been active at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
It took only 27 games across seven days for officials to allocate more red cards than they did during the entire 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. The record for red cards in a single World Cup stands at 28 in 2006. These moments led to penalty kicks, set pieces outside the box and offenses capitalizing on shorthanded opponents.
FOX Sports rules analyst Mark Clattenburg weighed in on the increase in red cards.
“Players are well-behaved, but they’re just making mistakes in and around the penalty area, in maybe a panic,” Clattenburg said. “And not saying the players getting inside the penalty area and conceding the penalties are more than happy to commit a foul and commit a red card, knowing that they miss the next match, but now that they have 26 players on the roster, there are plenty of players to certainly cover [those] positions.”
The record for red cards in a single World Cup is 28 in the 2006 edition of the tournament, and nine of those were straight red cards.
- 2026: 6 red cards (all 6 straight reds)
- 2022: 4 red cards (1 straight red)
- 2018: 4 red cards (2 straight reds)
- 2014: 10 red cards (7 straight reds)
- 2010: 17 red cards (9 straight reds)
- 2006: 28 red cards (9 straight reds)
Here’s a look at every red card and the impact they’ve had on the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Miguel Almiron was sent off right before halftime in Paraguay’s match against Türkiye after a VAR check determined that he said something while covering his mouth to an opposing player.
Madibo made an ill-timed tackle in the midfield on Canada’s Ismaël Koné. Koné was ultimately stretchered off the pitch as Qatar was reduced to nine men.
With Canada taking an early 2-0 lead, Homam Ahmed’s desperate tackle on Tajon Buchanan just outside the box only made matters worse. Canada scored moments later against a 10-man Qatar side to increase the advantage to 3-0.
Tarik Muharemović tackled Swiss striker Breel Embolo on the precipice of the 18-yard box, preventing a one-on-one between Embolo and the goalkeeper. Switzerland didn’t convert the ensuing set piece, but with Bosnia and Herzegovina down to 10 men, the Swiss went on to score three late goals and close out a 4-1 victory.
As tempers boiled in the opening match, Mexico made it a three-red-card affair. César Montes took down Khuliso Mudau in an attacking position in the second minute of injury time. South Africa couldn’t capitalize on the set piece, and the match ended with a 2-0 Mexico victory.
Themba Zwane was sent off for making contact with Brian Gutiérrez in the head during a South African attack. He put his team in a stick situation, down to nine men. Zwane’s suspension was extended from the normal one game to three after FIFA ruled it fell under Article 14’s rule for violent contact.
In the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening match, Sithole took down Mexico’s Brian Gutierrez just outside the box, earning a red card as the last line of defense between Gutierrez and the goalkeeper. Sithole’s red card led to a free kick from a threatening position, but Mexico couldn’t convert. However, in the 67th minute, Mexico capitalized on the one-man advantage as Raúl Jiménez scored his first World Cup goal.
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