INTRODUCTION On August 5th 2021, the Olympic 10 km marathon swim was held at Odaiba Marine Park in the Tokyo Bay. 26 swimmers from 22 nations jumped into the 29.2 °C warm water at 6:30 a.m. that day. The humidity was 80 % and the air temperature went from 27 to over 30 °C during the race. Under these conditions, Florian Wellbrock (FW) finished after 1:48:33.7 with almost a start-finish victory and won the Olympic gold medal (2nd K. Rasovszky, +25.3 sec, HUN; 3rd G. Paltrinieri +27.4 sec, ITA). A marathon swim race at this international level actually has a different character. The main competitors tend to stay more together, the pace is also usually higher, and the race is mostly decided at the finish line. The fact that this race was different from previous world-class races was certainly due to the special environmental conditions in Tokyo in combination with the extraordinary performance of FW. That's why it is worth taking a closer look at what the cornerstones of Wellbrock's training methodology and sports science strategy are that helped him reach the top of the podium in Tokyo.
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