Paris 2024 Olympics: Meet Leon Marchand, the most decorated male Olympian at the Summer Games

Swimming events at the Paris 2024 Olympics brought along with it the arrival of “Marchand-mania”

Since the beginning of the Games, home favourite Leon Marchand stunned crowds with his performances, where he won five medals, gold in all four of his individual events, and a bronze medal in the men’s 4x100m medley relay.

He became the first male swimmer since Michael Phelps to win four gold medals in the same Olympics. 

The French swimmer has won the most medals at this edition of the Olympics with four golds and one bronze.

Men’s 400 metre individual medley

Marchand delivered a swimming gold for France with a dominating victory in the men’s 400m individual medley. He was ahead as soon as his head popped out of the water and steadily pulled away from the field, essentially competing in two separate races: one against the clock and the other against his rivals for silver and bronze.

Marchand was under world-record pace at the final turn but faded slightly toward the finish, touching in 4:02.95 — an Olympic record, but just shy of his own world mark of 4:02.50.

Men’s 200m breaststroke and butterfly

FILE PHOTO: Gold medallist Leon Marchand of France celebrates on the podium after winning and establishing Olympic record.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS

Marchand went where no swimmer has gone before by winning both the 200m breaststroke and butterfly golds on the same night—both in Olympic record times. He claimed his first medal of the day by setting a new Olympic record in the men’s 200m butterfly with a time of 1:51.21, breaking Kristof Milak’s record from the 2020 Tokyo Games.

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The breaststroke gold was his third medal of the night, and at 22 years old, he rewrote the script on what was previously thought impossible by becoming the first swimmer to medal in both of these demanding disciplines. Marchand led every meter of the breaststroke final, touching in 2:05.85 to set a new Olympic record and surpass Zac Stubblety-Cook’s previous mark from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Men’s 200m individual medley

Marchand took his fourth gold medal of the Paris Olympics when he won the men’s 200 metres individual medley in an Olympic record time.

Marchand is the first French athlete to take four individual golds, as opposed to team ones, at a single Summer Games and only the third male swimmer to do so after Americans Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz.

Men’s 4×100 metres medley

The United States’ 64-year unbeaten run in the men’s 4×100 metres medley ended at the Paris Olympics as China won with a time of 3:27.46.

Marchand, who swam the breaststroke leg was upstaged by China’s Qin Haiyang. France won the bronze clocking 3:28.38.