Paris Olympics, Day 5: Leon Marchand Caps Golden Double with OR in 200 Breast
Through four days of the Paris Olympics, the script had played out perfectly for Leon Marchand. So perfectly that not even two Olympic champions could stand in the Frenchman’s way Wednesday night.
Marchand completed a double for the ages, following up his gold in the men’s 200 butterfly with another in the 200 breaststroke, with an Olympic record of 2:05.85 that is the second fastest performance in history.
It’s Marchand’s third gold medal of this games, to go with the 400 individual medley. He’s just the fourth man to win three individual gold medals at the same Olympics – joining Michael Phelps in both 2008 (five) and 2004 (four), Mark Spitz (four in 1972) and Caeleb Dressel (three in 2021).
- World record: Qin Haiyang, China, 2:05.48 (2023)
- Olympic record: Zac Stubblety-Cook, Australia, 2:06.38 (2021)
- Tokyo Olympic winner: Zac Stubblety-Cook, Australia, 2:06.38
In all three medals, he has ousted the reigning world champion just about head-to-head – Chase Kalisz in the 400 IM (Kalisz was eliminated in prelims), Kristof Milak mano-a-mano and Zac Stubblety-Cook of Australia, whose Olympic record he snatched.
Stubbblety-Cook hung on to silver in 2:06.79. Caspar Corbeau snuck in to bronze in 2:07.90.
Marchand approached the double mainly to see if it was possible. The answer was a resounding yes, thanks in large part to his meticulous preparation of the entire night. His win in the 400 IM made things easier, he said. Coach Bob Bowman had his reservations, even as recently as a week ago, but eventually came over to Marchand’s side.
“I had a lot of pressure after the 400 IM,” Marchand said. “It was my specialty. I had the WRs, and it was the first day. I felt a lot of pressure, and it was very liberating during the race. … The double gold was something I was thinking of for a while, and seeing that my coach was confident also helped me a lot.”
“He was pretty confident,” Bowman said. “He’s like, let’s just see how the morning goes. Well, that was pretty easy. Let’s see how the semis go. OK, that was pretty good.”
Marchand wrapped up the gold medal in the men’s 200 fly right around 8:40 local time in Paris. He had the medal ceremony at 9:35, then was back in the water at 10:31 to chase the 200 breast.
The 200 breast was everything that the 200 fly was not. In the latter, Milak took the initiative and had what looked like an unassailable edge after 150 meters.
The shoe was on the other foot for Marchand in the 200 breast, his lead more than two seconds at 150. Stubblety-Cook, a legendary closer, clipped half of it, but there was no catching Marchand, to the joy of a partisan crowd.
“It didn’t feel like a swim meet,” Stubblety-Cook said. “I felt like I was at a rugby game. I was moving the block and normally you can hear it, but you can’t hear anything. You can’t even hear yourself think. It was an awesome atmosphere out there, a crowd I’ll probably never swim in front of that big again. It’s awesome for the sport, and it’s awesome to see that.”
- Meet Results
- 2024 Paris Olympics Meet Page
- Men’s 200 breaststroke prelims
- Men’s 200 breaststroke semifinals
Through two rounds of the 200 breaststroke, one wasn’t really sure what to think about the state of the field. Gone were the silver medalist from the Tokyo Olympics (Arno Kamminga, back injury) and bronze medalist (Matti Mattsson, eliminated in prelims). The semifinals eliminated world record holder and 2023 world champion Qin Haiyang and 2023 bronze medalist Matt Fallon, who tied for 10th.
So when all was settled, what was left for the final? The second-fastest of China’s swimmers (Dong Zhihao, though he’s a 2024 world champ), the second-fastest of the Dutch swimmers (Corbeau, though he got silver in Doha and finaled in the 100), an American in Josh Matheny who was not the one in the last Olympic final (that as Nic Fink, who didn’t qualify at Trials) and two Japanese swimmers who don’t include that nation’s top finisher from the Tokyo Olympics.
It’s all fitting for an event in which the last nine Olympic medals have gone to nine different countries, such powerhouses as Kazakhstan and Finland represented. France now gets in that mix, making it 10 for the last 12.
For his part, Stubblety-Cook was thrilled with silver.
“I was stoked at that result,” he said. “To be back at 2:06 is awesome. And Leon’s an ultimate competitor. I was absolutely stoked. I left nothing out there so I can’t complain.”
Corbeau turned for home in third. He got there in 2:07.90, holding off a charge that brought Dong from seventh to fourth. For the Dutchman by way of the University of Texas, it validated a move back home last year to rediscover his love of the sport.
“Last year, I didn’t know if I wanted to continue,” he said. “This was a step that I took to see if I could find more success and also find my love for the sport again, and I think this is a great way to end the season.”
Yu Hanaguruma was fourth. Matheny finished seventh.
But the night was Marchand’s, a night for the ages. No one was going to take that away, not even the shyness of the man at the center of it.
“I’m really a shy person at first, and I was really the center of attention in those two races,” he said. “I was trying to get energy from the whole crowd. They were really pushing me in every final. I think I did really well in those two finals to be able to manage my energy the whole night, and I was able to push it as fast as possible.”
King Leon keeps ‘Marchand’ on!!
Now make it 4!!
it was an amazing double – but not the first (as the fools Moorhouse, Jameson and Foster keep saying, even today). Kornelia Ender got two individual golds (in WR times) in 1976 – within 27 minutes!