It’s a familiar practice in the era of swimming greats like Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky, who swim multiple events, to expect them to dominate and win gold in each one. It’s not a matter of if they will win, but by how much.
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Add Leon Marchand to that list. The Frenchman, who is quickly becoming a home-country hero for his decisive wins in the pool at these Paris Summer Olympics, was on the blocks again at Paris La Defense Arena for the last of his individual events, the 200-m individual medley.
Earlier in the week, Marchand swam to gold in the 400-m individual medley, the 200-m backstroke and the 200-m breaststroke—the last two on the same night—and on Friday, he added to that golden trove.
Marchand wasn’t first to hit the wall after the first 50-m butterfly; he was out-touched by China’s Wang Shun. But he led after the next 50 m with backstroke, and really pulled ahead in the breaststroke to take it home with the final 50-m freestyle. Carson Foster from Team USA, swimming in the lane next to Marchand as the second fastest qualifier, said “I hope everyone appreciates what they’re seeing and [his accomplishments] don’t get lost in the comparisons to [Michael] Phelps. I grew up looking up to Phelps and still think he’s the greatest of all time, but Leon definitely deserves—with the track he’s on—he definitely deservers be in that conversation. And it’s an honor to race in the same generation as him.”
Marchand is becoming enough of a hero that France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, was in the arena to watch the Toulousian and revel in the chance to express some French pride. Macron also witnessed Frenchman and four-time Olympian Florent Manaudou capture bronze in the 50-m sprint, behind first-time Olympian Cameron McEvoy from Australia and Benjamin Proud of Great Britain.
It wasn’t as golden a night for the Americans; Caeleb Dressel, the Olympic record holder in the 50-m freestyle, finished in sixth. Minutes later, he finished 13th in the semifinals for the 100-m butterfly, an event in which he set both the Olympic and world records at the Tokyo Games in 2021, and failed to qualify for Saturday’s final.
Regan Smith earned silver in the women’s 200-m backstroke, touching the wall 0.53 seconds behind gold medal winner, and world record holder in the event, Kaylee McKeown of Australia. Swimming in lane 7, Smith said, “really helped me stay in my own lane and not what my competitors are doing because in the past I’ve really gotten lost and too concerns with what people around me are doing instead of focusing on my own race plan. So it was nice to have a little outside smoke and put some pressure on things.”
The U.S. swim team hasn’t earned as many golds at this Games as they have in the past; currently Australia stands at the top of that leaderboard with seven, compared to Team USA’s four, although the U.S. has won 21 medals total at the pool compared to Australia’s 13.
“I think we have a really young team,” Smith said. “Most of us don’t have a ton of experience. And so I think we’ve really put our best foot forward. And we’re not done yet.”