NANTERRE, France: The party for Leon Marchand spread beyond the pool, quickly sweeping all across Paris.
At Stade de France, hosting the first night of track and field, an enormous ovation broke out when Marchand won his fourth gold medal of the Olympics. The roar was so loud that the first heat of the 400-meter run in the decathlon was delayed.
At the French Olympic house, nearly 20,000 gathered outside to watch Marchand cap his dominating run at the pool, including 19-year-old Arthur Oursel.
“He’s a hero,” Oursel said. “He’s our hero.”
With French President Emmanuel Macron among the more than 15,000 fans cheering him on in a rugby stadium-turned-natatorium, Marchand soared to another runaway victory in the 200-meter individual medley 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 he’ll be remembered as one of the biggest stars of the Summer Games in his home country. He finished in an Olympic record of 1 minute, 54.06 seconds, just missing Ryan Lochte’s 13-year-old world mark.
That was about the only thing he didn’t accomplish in six magical days at La Defense Arena, previously winning the 400 IM, 200 butterfly and 200 backstroke — the latter two about two hours apart in the same session.
Marchand became only the fourth swimmer in Olympic history to win four individual golds 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.
Heady company, indeed.
“That’s crazy. Those guys are legends,” Marchand said. “I don’t think I have realized it yet. Maybe I will in a few days.”
The silver went to Britain’s Duncan Scott, a body length behind at 1:55.31. China’s Wang Shun grabbed the bronze in 1:56.00, edging out American Carson Foster for a spot on the podium.
What a night for France
A packed house at La Defense Arena came to cheer on their favorite son one more time. They chanted, sang “Sweet Caroline,” waved the French tricolor flag and unveiled a huge tifo in the upper deck.
After Marchand touched the wall, he held up four fingers — one for every gold. He climbed from the pool, pumped his fists, then held out his arms as if to say, “What more could you want?”
Not a thing.
He had done it all, more than fulfilling the expectations of his nation and the comparisons to Phelps, who was here to cheer Marchand on. What might have been a burden to some athletes only seemed to push Marchand to even greater heights.
Macron shook Marchand’s hand during Friday’s celebration and sent his congratulations via social media.
“The impossible isn’t French!” Macron wrote in French. “Four home gold medals and a new Olympic record — it’s historic. It’s Leon Marchand.”
Marchand certainly enjoyed his moment, which his American coach Bob Bowman — Phelps’ coach, in an appropriate touch — had encouraged him to do.
He led the fans behind the podium in a cheer before climbing to the top step one more time. The crowd erupted in its most rousing rendition yet of “La Marseillaise” — though, of course, they’ve had plenty of chances to work on the French national anthem this week.
Chants of “Leon! Leon! Leon!” filled the arena as soon as the anthem was done. Someone held up a sign that simply “Merci Leon.”
“I’m extremely proud,” Marchand said, “to be French.”
Australian gold for McEvoy, McKeown
Before Marchand’s triumph, Cameron McEvoy and Kaylee McKeown won more gold for Australia.
McEvoy touched first in the 50 freestyle, denying Caeleb Dressel a repeat in swimming’s most frantic event. McKeown followed with a victory in the 200 backstroke to become the first female swimmer to sweep the back at two straight Summer Games.
Asked if she could’ve envisioned such an accomplishment, McKeown said, “Not in a million years.”
McEvoy became the first Australian man to win gold at these games, and McKeown quickly boosted her country’s total to an Olympics-leading seven golds overall — three more than both the US and Marchand, who is essentially a country unto himself.
McKeown noted what an amazing time this is for women’s sports, following in the footsteps of athletes such as Simone Biles and Caitlin Clark in raising the profile of female athletes.
“Not just the Aussie girls, but the whole world and female sports has been unreal this year,” McKeown said. “It’s great to be a part of that.”
McEvoy made it from one end of the pool to the other in 21.25, edging Benjamin Proud of Britain by five-hundredths of a second. Florent Manaudou of France gave the home crowd another thrill by taking the bronze in 21.56.
Dressel, who won five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, finished sixth in 21.61.
McKeown rallied again, just as she did in the 100 backstroke, to chase down perennial American runner-up Regan Smith. The winning time was an Olympic record of 2:03.73, breaking the mark that Missy Franklin set at the 2012 London Games.
Another silver for Regan Smith
Smith touched in 2:04.26 for the fifth silver medal of her career, to go along with a single bronze. She has yet to win gold.
The bronze went to Canada’s Kylie Masse in 2:05.57.
Smith insisted that she was satisfied with the result, even though a gold medal remained just out of reach.
“If I had gotten a silver medal and I had been a second slower, I think I would have been really disappointed in myself because that wasn’t putting my best foot forward. That wasn’t what I was capable of doing,” Smith said. “That’s one of my fastest times ever. I think I really gave Kaylee a run for it and I made things really close and exciting. So I’m thrilled with it.”
Dressel comes up short
The American star qualified in two individual events, and he won’t be winning a medal in either of them.
Shortly after his sixth-place showing in the 50 freestyle, he returned to the pool for the semifinals of the 100 butterfly — another of the events he won in Tokyo.
Dressel couldn’t pull off the grueling double, managing only the 13th-fastest time to miss out on the final Saturday night.
He did anchor the US to gold in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay for the eighth gold medal of his career.
It was a disappointing showing for one of the biggest stars of the Tokyo Games, but not all that unexpected given what he’s been through.
A year after the pandemic-delayed 2021 Olympics, Dressel walked away from swimming in the middle of the world championships.
He desperately needed a break to recapture his love of swimming, which is still a bit of a work in progress. Dressel seems much happier now, welcoming his first child about five months ago, but he couldn’t recapture that blazing speed from three years ago.
“Obviously not my best work,” Dressel said. “I’ve had a lot of fun but this hasn’t been my best week. I don’t think I need to shy away from that.”
He has one more relay to go in Paris, giving him another shot at his ninth career gold.
Dressel would like to go out on a high note, because these Games have been “a little heartbreaking, a little heartbreaking for sure.”
After leaving the pool deck, he broke down in tears.
