France hails new hero Leon Marchand, heir apparent to swim great Michael Phelps

PARIS – Even on these gloomy Parisian mornings, one cannot miss the giant image of Leon Marchand on the starting blocks adorning the 210-metre skyscraper Tour Montparnasse with the words “A nous deux, Paris”, which loosely translates to “Bring it on, Paris”.

The 22-year-old from Toulouse came here to win, and boy, did he bring his “A” game to light up the city.

Victory in the 200m individual medley on Aug 2 in 1min 54.06sec, over a second ahead of his nearest rival, capped a stunning Olympic debut. He also won the 400m IM, 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly earlier in the week. Four finals, four wins and four Games records.

He is only the third man to win four individual swimming golds at a single Games, joining American greats Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz. No wonder Marchand marvelled at the comparison.

“That’s crazy. Those guys are legends. Legends of their own sport,” said Marchand, whose coach, Bob Bowman, also worked with Phelps. “It’s just crazy to be compared to those guys. I don’t think I realise from now. Maybe I will in a few days.”

Phelps, who won a record 23 golds, is a huge admirer. He said: “The kid can obviously swim, we know that, and if we didn’t know it before, he’s gonna be here for a long time. He’s gonna make a lot of noise.”

So do his supporters. Twenty minutes after the last medal ceremony was over on Aug 2, the crowd inside Paris La Defense Arena were still chanting his name in the stands.

Play actually stopped at the other sporting venues as fencers at the Grand Palais, tennis players at Roland Garros’ Court Philippe-Chatrier, and table tennis stars at South Paris Arena stood flummoxed when French fans went into raptures for no apparent reason.

It was the same at public screenings as cheers of “Le-on! Le-on! Le-on! Le-on!” rang out, while the front cover of the L’Equipe newspaper hailed him as a golden legend. Even French President Emmanuel Macron gave him a congratulatory call.

Marchand, who exchanged high fives with as many fans as he could along the perimeter of the pool deck, said: “I don’t think anything went wrong this week. It’s been perfect. Four gold medals is not what I thought I could possibly do. I was trying to win one at first.”

There is no secret, though. Described by his Arizona State University coaches and teammates as gentle, polite, humble and laid-back, the computer science major wakes up at 5.30am to train and cover 5-7km, six days a week. But he is no stranger to the work ethic required to succeed as a world-class athlete.

From a family of Olympic swimmers, his father Xavier reached the finals at Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000, his mother Celine Bonnet competed at Barcelona 1992, and his uncle Christophe Marchand also participated at Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992. 

In fact, it was Xavier and Christophe who got Marchand started by getting him to race other children at a restaurant pool when he was six. He had by then already dabbled in judo and rugby.

Little did they expect he would become the world’s fastest medley swimmer, maximising his 1.87m, 76kg physique to complete the rare Olympic butterfly-breaststroke double. In just a single Games, he has matched fencers Lucien Gaudin and Christian d’Oriola and judoka Teddy Riner’s French record of four Olympic golds.

Australian 100m freestyle silver medallist Kyle Chalmers was in awe as he said: “Four laps of butterfly is very hard with so much pressure and expectation. To then cool off, go to the medal ceremony, and back it up, he is wild. He is a generational talent. I’m lucky to share the pool deck with him.”

Fans decked in blue, white and red have formed snaking queues outside the swimming area. Some are new converts trying to get tickets to watch their new hero live.

Arthur Saintagne, 24, who had watched one of Marchand’s semi-finals in person and followed all his other races via live streaming, said: “To win a gold medal is something special and then to win two in such different events in the same day... that’s crazy.

“Swimming is not popular in France but we’ve all heard about Leon because of what he achieved at the world championships (golds in the two individual medleys and 200m fly in 2023), and the crazy things he’s done.”

Many feel Marchand is the natural successor to another French swimming star, London 2012 men’s 50m freestyle champion Florent Manaudou.

Antoine Duroc, 40, said: “In terms of achievement, he has overtaken Manaudou, and at just 22, he has the potential to be our greatest Olympian by far.”

Bowman said comparisons with Phelps were justified. He noted: “He can be better. He’s not reached his potential.

“I’m ranking him at the top right now because he’s just got the total package. He’s got the speed, he’s got the endurance, he’s got the underwaters.

“The similarities now we’ve seen... it’s kind of proven that Leon has joined Michael in that very rare club of people who, when the pressure is higher, they perform better. His performance rises to the pressure, not shrinks from it.”

Incidentally, the 231m Tour First, which in 2011 surpassed Tour Montparnasse as the tallest building in France, also sits in the La Defense business district near the pool where Marchand has been making waves.

After these stunning Olympics, the sky is surely the limit for him.