There are a number of ways to determine the quality of an elite swimmer: medals won, records broken, the number of followers they have on Instagram.
But in Olympic sports like swimming, there is another important measure: an athlete’s ability to break out of the box of “Olympic sports” and into the mainstream sporting narrative.
French swimmer Leon Marchand has done just that after breaking the oldest swimming World Record in history, and Michael Phelps‘ last remaining individual World Record, on day 1 of the 2023 World Aquatics Championships. He was recognized as the #10 play of the day on the SportsCenter Top 10 on ESPN.
The clip was brief, but elicited an “oh cool” from one anchor when Phelps appeared on the podium to celebrate with the 21-year-old Marchand.
The biggest ‘hook’ for the mainstream audience was probably omitted – that it was Phelps’ only remaining individual World Record – but ESPN Senior Publicist Bea Panitz, a former swimmer at Michigan State, included it in her Tweet. Panitz oversees SportsCenter and ESPN Social.
Swimming on today's #SCTop10!! @MichaelPhelps on the call as his last individual world record gets broken by Leon Marchand.
Marchand who swims for @ASUSwimDive year round is coached by Bob Bowman, Phelps’ former coach.#AQUAFukuoka23 🏊♂️ pic.twitter.com/V2f7YvESnJ
— Bea Panitz (@beapanitzESPN) July 24, 2023
The SportCenter Top 10, which has become more diversified in recent years, is a massive platform for any sport, and carries with it a lot of cachet. While plenty of big swimming performances, especially from the NCAA Championships, are overlooked, in the later summer months, where baseball is the only of the Big Four American sports in action, there is more often room for sports like swimming.
The people hating on ESPN crack me up.
Swimming is a non revenue sport. On. Every. Single. Level.
If he didn’t break Phelps record would it have been on SC?? SMH. Respect to Leon tho
Nope. There were other records broken in Japan
DUNuNUN
DUNuNUN
Okay great and all that it made it to the top 10 but let’s talk about how the boneheads at ESPN could only put it at number 10. I am a huge baseball fan and I respect the plays on there… but they happen every single day (diving catches and double plays are a common occurrence like cmon bro). It’s not every single day however that someone breaks the longest standing record in a sport. I’d bet money Judge’s HR number 62 went up to no. 1 on the top 10 back in February. Just baffles me man, put some respect on Leon, Phelps and the sport of swimming’s name.
Totally agree. 9 plays of the day that happen daily vs Marchand destroying the oldest world record on the books.
Thanks so much ESPN. This is why I haven’t watched SportsCenter in more than a decade.
Make it 30 yrs for me. Hope they go out of business
Yep Leon’s 400 IM is the equivalent of like a 50+ point close out game in game 7 to win the NBA title
wow. 10th place and an “oh cool”
🤦♂️
Phelps still holds some records that I believe will never be broken. Eight gold in one Olympics. Eighteen gold in all. With five more other medals making a total of twenty three .
Phelps has 28 medals 23 gold
Yeah, who the hell is gonna win 5,5,3,3 individual Olympic medals over the course of 4 Olympics (and those exclude all the relay medals)?
I believe he won 4,5,2,3 but nonetheless still an incredible feat and don’t think anyone will be able to top that for years to come!
Explain to me how breaking one of the longest standing world records in history is #10 of the day smh. Should be at least top 10 of the month bare minimum
It’s #10 because swimming isn’t a priority sport for media coverage.
There have been few accomplishments this year in sports that compare to what Marchand did.
Haven’t watched SC in many years, but maybe this reminded some swammers of something they once cared about.