In front of a jubilant home crowd on Friday, Leon Marchand declared it a “perfect week” after securing his fourth gold medal of the Paris Olympics with a decisive win in the 200-meter individual medley.
In front of a jubilant home crowd on Friday, Leon Marchand declared it a “perfect week” after securing his fourth gold medal of the Paris Olympics with a decisive win in the 200-meter individual medley. The French swimmer becomes the first male to win four individual gold medals in a single Games since American record-breaker Michael Phelps in Beijing 2008. Marchand won in 1 minute 54.06 seconds, which is both an Olympic record and the second-fastest time in history. Duncan Scott of Britain took second place, and Wang Shun of China came in third.
At La Defense Arena, it was yet another unforgettable evening for the host country, with French President Emmanuel Macron among those in attendance commemorating the 22-year-old poster boy’s most recent night of success.
Nothing went wrong this week, in my opinion. After supporters sang La Marseillaise, Marchand grinned and said, “It was just perfect.”
Marchand was the overwhelming favorite going into Friday’s race because he had already won gold in the 400-meter individual medley, 200-meter butterfly, and 200-meter breaststroke.
The defending champion Wang of China was ahead after the first butterfly leg, but Marchand overtook him in the backstroke.
With a powerful 50-stroke breaststroke, he increased his lead, and the crowd roared him towards the wall as he held onto his lead in the freestyle final leg.
Marchand works under Bob Bowman, the former coach of Michael Phelps, and the American was looking for words to express how well his swimmer performed this past week.
From my perspective, everything was just perfect. He is just utterly prosperous. I’m incredibly happy for him. Perfection requires a lot of work,” he remarked.
Scott, a British competitor, now has eight Olympic medals after finishing second to Wang in Tokyo. This was another silver to add to his collection.
Marchand had an incalculable influence on the sport, he claimed.
“He’s becoming a sort of global superstar now and he kind of runs France now, which is what we’re hearing in the crowd,” he stated.
“The child has adored it, and it’s incredible. It’s been incredible to watch, he remarked. You can see he’s doing it with a smile on his face and the audience is giving him so much energy.
The bad news for any rivals hoping that this is a one-off burst of glory in a home pool is that Marchand is already thinking towards 2028.
“It’s not over for me. It’s only the beginning. I’m really excited…. my next goal is LA.”
