Léon Marchand of France won a gold medal and set an Olympic record in the men’s 400-meter individual medley at the Paris Games on Sunday. He pulled away from his competitors as thousands of fans shouted his name at La Defense Arena.
Léon Marchand won the men’s 400-meter individual medley easily on Sunday night, with flag-waving fans cheering him on at every move. France won a gold medal in swimming.
As soon as Marchand’s head came out of the water, he was ahead of the other swimmers, and he slowly pulled away from them. There were really two races going on at once: Marchand was racing against the clock, and everyone else was trying to win silver and bronze.
He was behind the world record pace on the last turn, but slowed down a bit coming home. He crossed the finish line in 4 minutes, 2.95 seconds, which is an Olympic record but just behind his own world record of 4:02.50. This was Marchand’s record at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, last year. Michael Phelps had held that record for 15 years.
It’s no surprise that people have compared the young Frenchman to Phelps. He even has the same coach, the American Bob Bowman, who worked with the most accomplished athlete in Olympic history.
For at least one night, Marchand lived up to those crazy high hopes. He also lived up to the dreams of the host country with a performance that makes him one of the biggest stars of the Paris Games.
Plus, Phelps was in the building to watch it happen while he was reporting on the race for NBC.
Not long after Marchand left the pool, Torri Huske beat Gretchen Walsh, who held the world record, in the women’s 100 butterfly. Huske used a strong finish to get to the wall just ahead of her teammate, giving the United States a 1-2 win.
The favorite did what she always does: she tried to get off to a fast start and hold on. At the U.S. trials last month, she set a new world record of 55.18, and at the turn, she was already behind the record pace.
However, Huske caught up to her in the important race. The winner touched in 55.59 seconds, which is just over a finger’s length faster than Walsh’s time of 55.63 seconds.
Huske broke down in tears as she reached across the lane rope to give Walsh a hug when she saw the “1” next to her name on the.
Zhang Yufei of China won bronze in 56.21, which is likely to make people look twice because she was one of almost twenty swimmers from her country who tested positive for a banned substance before the Olympics but were still allowed to participate. Zhang has said she’s going to race honestly.
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‘Léon! Léon! Léon!’
Of course, Marchand was the star of Day 2 of swimming.
More than 15,000 fans were packed into La Defense Arena. Many of them had the blue, white, and red of the tricolore drawn on their faces.
Chants of “Léon! Léon! Léon!” and an improvised performance of “La Marseillaise” started in the rugby stadium 15 minutes before Marchand walked on for the first final of the evening.
The big 22-year-old Marchand seemed to carry all of France on his shoulders. He had trained in the U.S. while he was at Arizona State University. There was no doubt that he would win another gold medal. This was his first, but definitely not his last.
Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita won second place, coming in 4:08.62 seconds, almost 6 seconds behind the winner. With a time of 4:08.66, American Carson Foster won third place.
This year’s Olympic winner, U.S. 30-year-old Chase Kalisz, was knocked out in the preliminary rounds because he did not post one of the top eight times.
As soon as everyone else was done, Marchand jumped on the lane rope and pumped his left fist for the huge crowd that was there to see him. The stadium was usually used by the famous rugby team Racing 92.
A good place for this show to happen.
April Marchand was the fastest in the race.