Michael Phelps' former coach Bob Bowman achieves rare feat as students including Leon Marchand & Shaine Casas shine at World Aquatics Championships

Michael Phelps' former coach Bob Bowman achieved a significant feat as three of his students which including Leon Marchand, Shaine Casas, and Hubert Ko, all finished in the top 3 of the 200m Individual Medley at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. Bowman started coaching Phelps when he was 11 years old, and went on to coach the French swimmer Marchand during his time at Arizona State University.

Michael Phelps is regarded as one of the greatest athletes in history. Phelps established himself as one of the best swimmers in the world at the 2004 Athens Olympics when he won 8 Olympic medals, with 6 of them being gold. He would go on to earn multiple accolades, including winning 8 gold medals at the Beijing Games in 2008, becoming the athlete with the most golds at a single Olympics. Phelps would retire after the Rio 2016 Games as the most decorated Olympic athlete in history, choosing to focus on other ventures.

Leon Marchand, Shaine Casas, and Hubert Kos all won the gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively, in the Individual 200m Medley at the World Aquatics Championship. This marked a significant achievement for Bob Bowman, as he had coached Marchand and Kos at the University of Arizona and worked with Casas at Texas A&M. Bowman was the head coach at Arizona for nine years before moving on to the University of Texas in April 2024.

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Bob Bowman on the similarities between Michael Phelps and Leon Marchand

Michael Phelps and Leon Marchand both worked under Bob Bowman - Source: Getty

Michael Phelps' former coach, Bob Bowman, recently revealed his thoughts on the similarities between the former American swimmer and Leon Marchand. In an interview on The Exponential Athlete Podcast, he said: (1:38 onwards)

"They [Phelps and Marchand] both have big goals that are quite specific, and they have broken them into plan pieces that we diligently work toward every day. Both of them recognize the value of an individual practice and want to get as much as possible out of each practice. Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes it's not that much, but they almost never leave the pool thinking that they went backwards. They find some way to get something out of that practice. I think that's a mindset that's really important.

Michael Phelps and Leon Marchand have supported each other on many occasions, with the pair first meeting in Fukuoka at the World Championships.

Edited by pranavsethii