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Wild acquire G Marc-Andre Fleury as West hopefuls make moves

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Wild acquire G Marc-Andre Fleury as West hopefuls make moves

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The NHL playoffs simply wouldn’t be the identical with out Marc Andre-Fleury being someplace within the combine.

Unable to backstop the retooling Chicago Blackhawks into rivalry, the three-time Stanley Cup-winner is headed to Minnesota to assist the high-scoring Wild shore up their inconsistent goaltending points for a late-season playoff push. Minnesota gave up a conditional first-round decide on this yr’s draft to accumulate the 37-year-old Fleury hours earlier than the NHL commerce deadline on Monday.

Fleury, who final missed the playoffs throughout his first full season in Pittsburgh 16 years in the past, jumped 10 spots within the Western Convention standings by touchdown in Minnesota the place he’ll share the goaltending duties with Cam Talbot. The Wild opened the day sitting fourth total — and third within the Central Division — in a tightly contested playoff race wherein six factors separate third-place St. Louis and ninth-place Dallas.

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Chicago Blackhawks’ Marc-Andre Fleury performs towards the Columbus Blue Jackets throughout an NHL hockey sport Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio.
((AP Picture/Jay LaPrete, File))

Eight of the West’s prime 9 groups made strikes, beginning with the conference-leading Colorado Avalanche touchdown Montreal’s Artturi Lehkonen, who is taken into account among the best 200-foot wingers in hockey. The one contender to not make a commerce was wage cap-strapped and damage depleted Vegas, which sits eighth.

The Japanese Convention groups have been busy, too, making the most of one final likelihood in focusing totally on addressing depth and defensive wants.

The wage cap, which has stayed flat at $81.5 million, performed an element, with a majority of the trades involving gamers eligible to change into unrestricted free brokers this summer time with draft picks going again in return.

The East-leading Carolina Hurricanes acquired ahead Max Domi in a commerce with Columbus simply earlier than the deadline. Domi has topped 40 factors in 4 of his seven NHL seasons.

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“We have been searching for any person to enrich our ahead group, the highest 9, and felt that this was an ideal match for us,” Hurricanes basic supervisor Don Waddell mentioned of Domi, who 9 targets and 32 factors in 53 video games this yr.

The Pittsburgh Penguins landed a possible top-six ahead Rickard Rakell in a commerce with Anaheim. Rakell’s 154 targets in 550 video games rank fifth on the Geese record. In return, Anaheim acquired Zach Aston-Reese, Dominik Simon, prospect goalie Calle Clang and a second-round draft decide.

The eighth-place Capitals made two strikes at wing, with Marcus Johansson returning to Washington for a second stint following a commerce with Seattle and Johan Larsson arriving in a take care of Arizona.

The New York Rangers added measurement to their protection by buying Justin Braun in a commerce with Philadelphia.

Of the trades accomplished, the Wild’s addition of Fleury may nicely be essentially the most significant in in search of to handle one of many league’s widest disparities: Minnesota ranks third within the NHL in averaging 3.67 targets per outing, and twenty second in permitting 3.2 targets per sport.

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In buying Fleury, who received a Vezina Trophy a yr in the past with Vegas, Minnesota traded backup goalie Kaapo Kahkonen and a fifth-round draft decide to San Jose for defenseman Jake Middleton. Kahkonnen had a 12-8-3 document this season and was 0-5-1 with 21 targets allowed in his previous six begins. The Wild additionally grabbed a second-round decide this summer time from the rebuilding Coyotes for unsigned prospect Jack McBain.

In different strikes:

  • The St. Louis Blues obtained the defenseman they’ve been searching for, buying Nick Leddy from the Detroit Pink Wings. St. Louis additionally obtained Luke Witkowski and despatched ahead Oskar Sundqvist, defenseman Jake Walman and a 2023 second-round decide to Detroit. Leddy is a pending free agent.
  • The Coyotes acquired unsigned ahead prospect Nathan Smith and Bryan Little’s contract from the Winnipeg Jets for a 2022 fourth-round decide. Little is signed for 2 extra seasons at an annual wage cap hit of $5.3 million and isn’t anticipated to play once more due to concussion points.
  • “We’re excited to accumulate Nate,” Coyotes GM Invoice Armstrong mentioned. “He’s a really expert two-way heart who’s relentless and competes laborious each night time. We’re very pleased to accumulate his rights and stay up for him becoming a member of the Coyotes group.”
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs may need been the day’s largest loser in failing to handle their goaltending wants. Toronto misplaced out on signing Harri Sateri after Arizona claimed the Olympic gold-medal-winning Finn off waivers. Signed by Toronto to a $750,000 contract for the remainder of the season, Sateri was first required to clear waivers as a result of he performed in Europe this season.
  • One goaltender who was considered accessible got here off the market earlier than the deadline when Anton Forsberg re-signed with Ottawa. Forsberg inked an $8.25 million, three-year deal.

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What makes Leon Marchand a superstar? He's smaller, lighter and unbelievable underwater

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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.

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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.

GO DEEPER

Meet Léon Marchand, the ‘French Michael Phelps’ ready to rule his home Olympics

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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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“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…

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(Top photo: Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

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Simone Biles slips off balance beam, fails to make podium in Paris Olympics event

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Simone Biles slips off balance beam, fails to make podium in Paris Olympics event

Simone Biles’ quest for her fourth gold medal of the Paris Olympics was thwarted on the balance beam on Monday after a slip up cost her a chance at a victory and a spot on the podium.

Biles had a really great chance at a gold medal as competitors before her had slipped and fallen to the mat. The only one standing her way with Italy’s Alice D’Amato, who was looking to make history for her country.

Simone Biles from the USA waits for her score. (Marcus Brandt/picture alliance via Getty Images)

But Biles, who won bronze medals on the apparatus in the last two Olympics, slipped and fell off the beam. The error cost her a chance at the podium. Biles’ teammate, Suni Lee, also had a fall. Lee hit the beam and then fell to the mat before picking herself back up and finishing her routine.

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It was the first time the Americans hadn’t made the podium since 2000.

Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade was the favorite to win the event aside from Biles. But Andrade failed to make the podium as well.

Suni Lee falls

Sunisa Lee of Team United States falls during the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Balance Beam Final on day ten of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 05, 2024 in Paris, France. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

SIMONE BILES’ NFL HUSBAND JONATHAN OWENS SAYS HIS WIFE IS ‘THE S—‘

D’Amato was in tears when she realized she captured the first gold medal in women’s gymnastics for her country. She scored a 14.366 to win the gold.

Fellow Italian gymnast Manila Esposito finished with a 14.000 to pick up a bronze medal.

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China’s Zhou Yaqin won silver in the event.

Alice D'Amato celebrates gold and Manila Esposito gets bronze. 

Alice D’Amato celebrates gold and Manila Esposito gets bronze.  (Marcus Brandt/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Biles and Jordan Chiles will compete for superiority in the floor exercise later.

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Simone Biles and Suni Lee fall in balance beam final and miss out on medals

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Simone Biles and Suni Lee fall in balance beam final and miss out on medals

Simone Biles stared daggers at the big screen as she waited. Whatever the score was going to be, she would not be happy.

After falling off the beam during the event final Monday at Bercy Arena, Biles settled for fifth place on balance beam, ending her streak of consecutive Olympic medals in the event.

Biles was not alone in her struggles as four of the eight finalists fell on the apparatus, including teammate Suni Lee, who slipped off on a triple acrobatic series and finished with a 13.100, identical to Biles’ score.

Italy’s Alice D’Amato survived with the cleanest routine to claim the gold medal over China’s Zhou Yaqin and countrywoman Manila Esposito, who took silver and bronze, respectively. D’Amato scored 14.366 and broke into tears when the final score was announced.

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Lee, who took bronze on the uneven bars Sunday, stated after the Olympic trials that she wanted a gold medal on beam, an event she consistently shines on with her elegance to only suffer a fluke mistake during the final.

Bad luck struck again for Lee as one of her feet slipped off the beam on the last skill of a triple acrobatic series and she crashed hard onto the mat. For the first time of these Olympics, Lee looked disappointed.

Her personal coach Jess Graba and U.S. head coach Cecile Landi both consoled the 21-year-old when she descended the stairs off the podium. Biles came over to offer a hug then left Lee smiling and laughing.

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