Another final, another gold medal, and another Olympic record for Leon Marchand. This one in the 200m individual medley, when he finished in 1:54.06, cheers rang out throughout the city, so loud was the cheering for him that the track and field race at the Stade de France, six miles away, was postponed. When he returned to swim, Marchand was suddenly so exhausted he could barely lift his arms in celebration. He hung on to the lane dividers, smiled, and finally pulled himself out of the pool to salute the crowd.
It was Marchand’s 11th race in six days, his fourth gold medal, and his fourth record. Great Britain’s Duncan Scott was the closest, but truth be told, he wasn’t that close. Scott won silver in 1:55.31. It was his eighth Olympic medal. Only Jason Kenny has won more medals for Great Britain.
Scott’s silver medal was Great Britain’s second of the night, following Ben Proud’s silver in the 50m freestyle. It was a moment of relief for Proud, who is a two-time world champion but has finished fourth and fifth in the most recent Olympic finals. After finishing just five tenths of a second behind Australia’s Cam McEvoy in Paris, there was some regret immediately afterwards – “I might look back on the footage and have a bit of regret that I could have gone faster” – but that was quickly replaced by the satisfaction of finally winning a medal. “It’s not gold but yeah, I’m super happy.”
Scott was pretty calm, too. It was his second-fastest time, but Marchand was just that much faster. “For a little bit of the race, I thought I was head-to-head with Leon,” he said. “But he’s the best 200-meter breaststroke swimmer in the world, the best 200-meter butterfly swimmer in the world, the best 200-meter medley swimmer in the world, the best 400-meter medley swimmer in the world. It was a real honour to race against him in this environment too. The crowd was crazy. It was sensational to be a part of it.”
Scott had also finished second in Tokyo three years ago, so coming runner-up again was a blow to him, but it was small consolation to have lost to one of the greatest swimmers of all time, and at least to have beaten China’s Wang Shun, who had been ahead of him the last time. Wang, who came third, was one of 11 Chinese swimmers competing in Paris who had previously tested positive for traces of the banned performance-enhancing drug TMZ but were allowed to compete because officials were convinced food contamination was the cause.
For a split second, it looked like Wang would beat Marchand. Wang was ahead of Marchand in the butterfly phase and close behind in the backstroke, but Marchand pulled away from Wang and everyone else in the breaststroke. By the end of the 50m swim, Wang was so far ahead that no one could catch him in the freestyle. Marchand’s breaststroke is one of the best Olympic spectacles. Wang’s beautiful, long, relaxed strokes put him ahead of everyone else, yet somehow he seems to move slower than everyone else. It’s like a current that you can’t resist.
Of the four events this week, the one Marchand most wanted to win gold in was the 200-meter medley. His mother, Céline, competed in the 200-meter medley at the 1992 Barcelona Games, where she finished 14th. His father, Xavier, placed eighth in the 1996 Atlanta Games and seventh in the 2000 Sydney Games. President Emmanuel Macron was there to watch Marchand accomplish what his parents could not, and he cheered along with the thousands of French fans in the arena. Whatever happens next, Marchand is one of the biggest reasons why France will remember these Olympics as a success.
Yet his victory may not have been the most popular of France’s medals last night. Twenty minutes earlier, Florent Manaudou had won bronze in the 50m freestyle behind Proud and McEvoy. At 33, Manaudou is the oldest male swimmer competing here, and the most beloved, even though he’s on the verge of losing his title. He won gold in the event in London and silver in Rio behind Anthony Ervin. He then quit the sport in a fit of existential depression and spent two years playing handball in the French second division, an eccentric move that endeared him to the French public.
He came back in Tokyo and placed second again, but then, of course, he had to hang in there until the Olympics in Paris. “Honestly, the highlight for me was standing on the podium with Florent Manaudou,” Proud said. “It was his fourth time on the podium and that’s the set list, so when I saw his name up there, I was like, ‘Oh my God, wow.'” Swimming has often been overshadowed by athletics at the Olympics, but here in Paris, Marchand, Manaudou and the French took it to a level not seen since Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in Beijing in 2008.
And, of course, what Marchand broke here was the old Olympic record set by Phelps at that very same Olympics. The King is gone. Long live the King.
