Léon Marchand won the 4th Olympic swimming gold, which triggered the celebration across Paris

AP INTERVIEW: Léon Marchand celebrates more than just his swimming victory; fans jumped all over Paris The party for Léon More than just having his swimming victory begun, it immediately rose and consumed all of Paris.

Léon Marchand

What excited the audience was the first night of track and field at the Stade de France, where it was hailed as Marchand winning his fourth gold medal of the Olympics. It was deafening; the first heat of the 400-meter run of the decathlon was brought forward because of the noise.

Outside the French Olympic House, about 20,000 people were waiting to watch Marchand, who undoubtedly had a very good campaign in the pool together with 19-year-old Arthur Oursel.

“He’s a hero,” Oursel said. “He’s our hero. ”

As more than 15,000 people, including French President Emmanuel Macron, watched him in a rugby stadium converted into a natatorium, Marchand triumphantly rushed to another outstanding victory in the 200-meter individual medley on Friday night.

Nothing that can be considered went wrong this week, according to Marchand. Finally, Yesudhasan said, “It was just perfect. ”

Thus, the 22-year-old French phenomenon did not leave any doubt about the fact that he will be regarded as one of the giants of the Summer Games in his own country. He concluded this race in 1 minute, 54 seconds, a time that set an Olympic record. 06 seconds, a decrease from Lochte’s 13-year-old world record.

The only race he had not been able to win in six enchanted days at La Defense Arena was the one he performed in at the beginning of this month, where he won the 400 IM, 200 butterfly, & 200 backstroke within the space of two hours.

Léon Marchand was the fourth swimmer in Olympic history to win four individual golds in a single game.

The others? Michael Phelps achieved this feat in both 2004 and 2008; the same was accomplished by Mark Spitz in 1972, while Kristin Otto of East Germany achieved this feat in 1988.

Heady company, indeed.

“It is crazy That is going to be a legend,” said Marchand. They said, “I don’t think I have realized it yet. Maybe I will in a few days. ”

Scotland’s Duncan Scott collected silver but was 1:55 behind the leader. 31. China’s Wang Shun produced a wonderful swim to come up with bronze in 1:56. Mainly, they were 00, and this allowed him to leave behind the American swimmer of Carson Foster and take the spot of the TOP-3.

Night for France

The La Defense Arena had been filled to support the favourite son one last time. They sang, belted out “Sweet Caroline,” waved their French tricolore proudly, and displayed a gigantic tifo at the upper section of the stadium.

Once a lapse led to touching the walls, Marchand raised four fingers—four golds. He exited the water and promptly pumped his fists before throwing them up for effect in an emphatic, let me have it response as if to say, “What else?”

Not a thing.

He had done it all and then some, much to the further satisfaction of his nation, and Phelps, who was here to support Marchand. While what to other athletes may have been seen as a burden appeared only to challenge Marchand to achieve even more.

Macron shook Marchand’s hand over the Friday celebration, where he also congratulated him via his Twitter account.

“The impossible isn’t French!” Macron wrote back in his native language, which is French. “Four home gold medals and it is a new Olympic record, it could not be anywhere else but here, it could not be anyone else but Leon Marchand. ”

Marchand most certainly savoured his moment, which his American coach, Bob Bowman, Phelps’ coach, in a rider for the occasion, had egged him on to do so.

He incited the fans to a cheer before going up the podium one more time. Again, the crowd rose to their feet, singing almost in chorus the ‘Marseillaise’ — and, indeed, during the week they have had ample practice in the French tune.

The audience then took their time to sing the anthem to the corresponding tune, and the chants of Léon! Léon! Léon!” could then be heard. One of them was waving a sign that had only the inscription, “Thank you, Léon Marchand. ”

“I am very honoured,” Marchand said, “to be French. ”

Australian gold for McEvoy, McKeown

Earlier, before Marchand’s victory, two athletes from Australia, Cameron McEvoy and Kaylee McKeown, brought more golds for their country.

McEvoy out-touched him in the 50-meter freestyle, which prevented Dressel from repeating himself in swimming’s most frantic race. McKeown came next in the 200 backstroke to become the first woman swimmer to sweep the back at two consecutive Summer Olympics.

Arriving at the interview, the journalist asked her whether she could have ever dreamt of achieving such a result, to which McKeown replied, “No way in a million years!

Before these Games, McEvoy became the first Australian man to win gold at these games, McKeown not only immediately added more to her nation’s tally but also rose to a total of seven golds, three more than both the US and Marchand, who is a country in himself.

McKeown said what a glorious period this is for ladies’ games, copying what the likes of Simone Biles and Caitlin Clark have done to bring prominence to sporting women.

“So not only the Aussie girls but the world and the females in sports have been spectacular this year,” McKeown, said. “That’s lovely to be more or less a part of it. ”

McEvoy swam from one end of the pool all the way to the other in 21.25, slightly beating Benjamin Proud from Britain by five-hundredths of the same unit. Another pleasant surprise for the home fans was the bronze medal of Florent Manaudou of France, who swam the distance in 21.56.

It is noteworthy that Dressel, who triumphed in five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, came in sixth place in 21.61.

In the second race, they again come back, like in the 100-backstroke final, to catch up with American rival Regan Smith. The winning time was a world Olympic record of 2:03.73, surpassing the outstanding record of Missy Franklin set at the 2012 London Olympics.

One more silver and this time for Regan Smith

Smith touched in 2:04.26 for her fifth-lifetime silver, which supplements the only bronze. To date, she has not secured a gold victory.

The bronze was claimed by Canada’s Kylie Masse in 2:05.57.

Despite being only a shade away from a gold medal, Smith vehemently denied being dissatisfied with the outcome.

“It’s funny now; 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,” Smith said. “That was one of the fastest times I’ve ever done, and I feel like I had a really, really good race with Kaylee; things got close and exciting at the finish line, so I’m very happy with it. ”

Dressel comes up short

If the American star participated in two individual events, that talented sportsman wouldn’t be a medalist in two particular event types.

After his disappointing performance in the 6th position of the 50 freestyle, the swimmer went back into the water for the semi-final of the 100 butterfly, one of the events in which he triumphed in Tokyo.

Dressel couldn’t pull off the gruelling double, managing only the 13th-fastest time to miss out on the final Saturday night.

He did anchor the U.S. to gold in the 4×100-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, having welcomed his first child about five months ago, but he couldn’t recapture that blazing speed from three years ago.

“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.