NANTERRE, France (AP) — In front of a flag-waving crowd cheering his every move, Leon Marchand delivered a gold medal to France in swimming with a landslide victory in the men’s 400-meter individual medley Sunday night.
Marchand was in the lead from the moment he emerged from the water and gradually pulled away from the pack in what were essentially two separate races: Marchand racing against the clock and everyone else battling for silver and bronze.
He was under the world record on the final turn, but faltered a bit as he came into the finish line, clocking 4 minutes, 2.95 seconds, an Olympic record but just under his own world mark of 4 minutes, 2.50 seconds. Marchand set that mark at last year’s world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, breaking a record that had stood for 15 years, held by Michael Phelps.
Unsurprisingly, the young Frenchman has been compared to Phelps and is guided by the same coach, American Bob Bowman, who accompanied the most decorated athlete in Olympic history throughout his career.
Marchand lived up to those staggering expectations, for one night at least, and fulfilled the host nation’s hopes with a performance that positions him as one of the biggest stars of the Paris Games.
And Phelps was in the building to watch the event, analyzing the race for NBC.
Shortly after Marchand left the deck, Torri Huske knocked off world record holder Gretchen Walsh in the women’s 100 butterfly, using a strong finish to put her hands on the wall just ahead of her teammate in a 1-2 finish for the United States.
The favourite followed her usual strategy: start fast and try to hold on. It worked in the US qualifiers, where she set her world record of 55.18 last month, and she was under the record pace at the turn.
But Huske caught up to her in the race that really mattered. The winner touched down in 55.59 seconds, about a finger’s width ahead of Walsh’s time of 55.63 seconds.
When Huske saw the “1” next to her name on the scoreboard, she reached over the rope to give Walsh a hug while breaking down in tears.
China’s Zhang Yufei took bronze in 56.21 seconds, which is sure to raise eyebrows as she is one of two dozen swimmers from her country who tested positive for a banned substance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics but were cleared to compete. Zhang insisted she ran clean.
Of course, on the second day of swimming, everyone was playing second fiddle to Marchand.
The Defense Arena was filled with more than 15,000 fans, many of whom had their faces painted in the blue, white and red of the tricolor banner.
Chants of “Leon! Leon! Leon!” and an impromptu rendition of “La Marseillaise” erupted through the rugby stadium 15 minutes before Marchand took to the deck for the first final of the evening.
Marchand, 22, who trained in the United States while attending Arizona State University, seemed to carry the weight of all of France on his broad shoulders. He won the first gold medal of his career, but certainly not the last.
The silver medal went to Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita, who finished nearly 6 seconds behind the winner in 4:08.62. American Carson Foster took bronze in 4:08.66.
Reigning Olympic champion Chase Kalisz, 30, of the United States, was eliminated in the preliminaries after failing to post one of the top eight times.
Marchand had to wait until everyone was finished, then he climbed the rope of the route and raised his left fist in front of an adoring crowd that filled a stadium normally used by the famous rugby club Racing 92.
A suitable venue for this performance.
No one ran faster than Marchand.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
