While most Olympians would be happy with just one gold medal, French swimmer Leon Marchand made history by winning two gold medals on the same day.
Competing in his home country, the 22-year-old achieved an unprecedented feat in Olympic history by winning both the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke – and by nearly two hours’ separation.
Marchand’s competition on Wednesday began at 2:37 p.m. ET with the men’s 200-meter butterfly. Despite falling behind in three of the four laps of the 50 meters, Marchand came through in a stunning finish to beat world record holder and defending Olympic champion Kristof Milak of Hungary in an Olympic record time of 1 minute, 51.21 seconds.
He beat Mirak’s Olympic record by four hundredths of a second.
A few hours later, at 4:31 p.m. ET, Marchand took the lead in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke and set a new Olympic record with a time of 2:05.85, beating reigning Olympic champion Zach “Stubliti” Cook, who won the silver medal in 2:06.79.
With her second victory, the rising superstar became the first Olympian to win medals in both the butterfly and breaststroke at the same Games, and the first Olympian to win two individual gold medals in the same day since East Germany’s Cornelia Ender in 1976.
“I really enjoyed every moment of these two finals,” Marchand said, according to the Associated Press. “It was amazing to swim and I was up against some really strong opponents. The 200 butterfly was amazing. I’m really proud of everything.”
2024 Paris Olympics
Marchand, who competes collegiately at Arizona State University, extended his gold medal tally to an astounding three, including a win in the 400-meter medley on Sunday.
In fact, the prodigy has won as many gold medals alone as Italy, Canada and Germany, if not more.
The incredible feat came at Marchand’s second Olympic Games, but he has never finished higher than sixth place in Tokyo 2021.
In college, Marchand was a 10-time NCAA champion and a three-time Pac-12 Men’s Swimming Athlete of the Year with the Sun Devils.
Marchand has proven himself one of the sport’s breakout stars in his native France, receiving spine-tingling ovations with every lap at Paris’ La Défense arena.
Thanks to Marchand’s performance, France won eight gold medals (tied for second with the U.S.) and 26 total medals (second only to the United States).
