Leon Marchand wins his fourth Olympic gold in swimming, sparking a party across Paris
NANTERRE, France: The party for Leon Marchand went beyond the pool and quickly spread to all of Paris.
At the Stade de France, where the first athletics event was held, enormous applause broke out when Marchand won his fourth Olympic gold medal. The cheers were so loud that the first heat of the 400-meter decathlon had to be postponed.
Nearly 20,000 people gathered outside the French Olympic Center to watch Marchand cap his dominating run in the pool, including 19-year-old Arthur Oursel.
“He's a hero,” Oursel said. “He's our hero.”
With French President Emmanuel Macron among more than 15,000 fans cheering him on in a rugby stadium converted into a swimming pool, Marchand cruised to another resounding victory in the 200-meter individual medley on Friday night.
“I don't think anything went wrong this week,” Marchand said. “It was just perfect.”
The 22-year-old French phenomenon left no doubt that he will be remembered as one of the biggest stars of the Summer Games in his home country, finishing the season with an Olympic record of 1 minute, 54.06 seconds, just missing the world record held by 13-year-old Ryan Lochte.
That was about the only thing he failed to do during the six magical days at the La Defense Arena. He had already won the 400 m individual medley, 200 m butterfly and 200 m backstroke – the last two in the same heat, about two hours apart.
Marchand was only the fourth swimmer in Olympic history to win four individual gold medals at a single Games.
The others? Michael Phelps, who did it in both 2004 and 2008; Mark Spitz in 1972; and East German Kristin Otto in 1988.
An intoxicating company indeed.
“It's crazy. These guys are legends,” Marchand said. “I don't think I've got it yet. Maybe I will in a few days.”
Silver went to Britain's Duncan Scott, who was a body length behind with a time of 1:55.31. China's Wang Shun took bronze with a time of 1:56.00, displacing American Carson Foster from the podium.
What a night for France
A full house at La Defense Arena came to cheer on their favorite son once again. They chanted, sang “Sweet Caroline,” waved the French tricolor and unveiled a giant tifo in the upper tier.
After Marchand touched the wall, he held up four fingers – one for each gold piece. He climbed out of the pool, clenched his fists, then held out his arms as if to say, “What more could you ask for?”
No thing.
He had given it his all, exceeding his country's expectations and the comparisons with Phelps, who had come to cheer Marchand on. What might have been a burden for some athletes only seemed to spur Marchand on to even greater heights.
Macron shook Marchand's hand during the ceremony on Friday and conveyed his congratulations via social media.
“The impossible is not French!” Macron wrote in French. “Four gold medals at home and a new Olympic record – that's historic. That's Leon Marchand.”
Marchand was certainly enjoying his moment, and his American coach Bob Bowman – appropriately Phelps' coach – had encouraged him to do so.
He left the fans behind the podium cheering before climbing to the top step once more. The crowd broke into their most rousing rendition of the “Marseillaise” yet – although of course they've had plenty of opportunity to work on the French national anthem this week.
Chants of “Leon! Leon! Leon!” filled the arena as soon as the national anthem ended. Someone held up a sign that simply read “Merci Leon.”
“I am extremely proud,” said Marchand, “to be French.”
Australian gold for McEvoy and McKeown
Before Marchand’s triumph, Cameron McEvoy and Kaylee McKeown won further gold for Australia.
McEvoy finished first in the 50-meter freestyle, preventing a repeat of Caeleb Dressel's victory in swimming's most exciting event. McKeown followed with a win in the 200-meter backstroke, becoming the first swimmer to finish last at two consecutive Summer Games.
When asked if she could have imagined such a feat, McKeown said: “Not in a million years.”
McEvoy was the first Australian to win gold at those Games, and McKeown quickly increased her country's total to seven gold medals, making her the Olympic all-time leader – three more than the United States and Marchand, which is essentially a country of its own.
McKeown stressed what a great time this is for women's sport, following in the footsteps of athletes such as Simone Biles and Caitlin Clark and raising the profile of female athletes.
“Not just the Australian girls, but the whole world and women's sport has been incredible this year,” McKeown said. “It's great to be a part of it.”
McEvoy made it from one end of the pool to the other in 21.25 seconds, five hundredths of a second faster than Britain's Benjamin Proud. Florent Manaudou of France once again thrilled the home crowd by taking the bronze medal in 21.56 seconds.
Dressel, who won five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, finished sixth with 21.61.
McKeown caught up again, just as she had in the 100-meter backstroke, to catch up with American runner-up Regan Smith. The winning time was an Olympic record of 2 minutes, 03.73 seconds, beating the record set by Missy Franklin at the 2012 London Games.
More silver for Regan Smith
Smith's time of 2:04.26 earned her fifth career silver medal, in addition to a bronze. She has yet to win gold.
Bronze went to Canadian Kylie Masse with 2:05.57.
Smith stressed that she was satisfied with the result, even though a gold medal remained just out of reach.
“If I had won a silver medal and I was a second slower, I probably would have been very disappointed in myself because that wasn't my best. That wasn't what I was capable of,” Smith said. “That's one of my fastest times ever. I think I really challenged Kaylee and made it really close and exciting. So I'm thrilled.”
Dressel does not perform well
The American star qualified for two individual events and will not win a medal in any of them.
Shortly after finishing sixth in the 50m freestyle, he returned to the pool for the semifinals of the 100m butterfly – another event he won in Tokyo.
Dressel did not manage to achieve the grueling double victory, he only achieved the 13th fastest time and was thus eliminated from the final on Saturday evening.
As the last runner for the USA, he won the eighth gold medal of his career with the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
It was a disappointing performance for one of the biggest stars of the Tokyo Games, but not entirely unexpected given what he has been through.
A year after the pandemic-related postponement of the 2021 Olympic Games, Dressel gave up his swimming career in the middle of the World Championships.
He desperately needed a break to rediscover his love of swimming, which is still ongoing. Dressel seems much happier now, having had his first child about five months ago, but he hasn't been able to get back to the blistering pace he was at three years ago.
“This is obviously not my best work,” Dressel said. “I had a lot of fun, but this was not my best week. I don't think I should be afraid of it.”
He still has one relay ahead of him in Paris, which gives him another chance at the ninth gold medal of his career.
Dressel wants to leave with a good feeling, because these games were “a little bit heartbreaking, definitely a little bit heartbreaking.”
After leaving the pool deck, he burst into tears.
