Every edition of the Olympic Games is an opportunity for local figures to become world stars. In the host countries, they promote the event with their top athletes, hoping that they will climb to the top of the podium. That is why, on most billboards in Paris and on French television channels, the face of Léon Marchand, a 22-year-old swimmer who has been the center of attention for two weeks, is constantly visible.
The pressure and the great expectations that had been generated did not weigh on him, and in his first performance at the Arena La Defense, in front of nearly 15,000 spectators, he won the 400-meter medley event with a new Olympic record and the second best of all time, surpassed only by the one he himself had set in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2023, which pulverized the only record held by a certain Michael Phelps, the best swimmer in history and winner of 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them gold.
Despite his popularity, Marchand is a simple and quiet man. In the morning before his feat, he shared the pool with Colombians Stefanía Gómez and Anthony Rincón; he even spent time with them in the mixed zone, and he cordially attended to the international media. He even took some photos with some Latin American journalists before being taken away by the press officer of his delegation.
He is already an icon of swimming, but his greatest virtue seems to be the maturity with which he has assumed success. “For Léon, swimming is not his whole life. It is part of his life, but it is not his whole life,” explained mental coach Thomas Sammut, who has been working with Marchand for four years. “He tries to maintain a balance between his studies, sports, friends, and family so that all these factors coexist in harmony, because if one predominates over the others, an imbalance is created, and that is not good for a high-level athlete,” he added in an interview with RMC Sport.
Marchand has been working in the United States for some time with Bob Bowman, who was Phelps’ trainer during his successful career, so few hesitate to point to him as the heir to the Baltimore Shark.
However, his Paris feat has only just begun. Leon hopes to win four more gold medals, including the 200-meter freestyle and 200-meter butterfly, something that has never been done before. To achieve this, he will have to swim two finals tomorrow, just over an hour and a half apart.
“I want to advantage over the energy that the public gives me. It is an advantage to be able to swim at home in front of the whole of France, and it would be a real shame not to take advantage of it,” said Marchand, who, despite his shyness, seems increasingly comfortable in front of the cameras.
He speaks naturally, highlights the virtues of his rivals, and is careful when setting goals and comparing himself with the best in history. “I want to win one race at a time. Winning gold at the Games was a dream. Now I have four opportunities to win another. If I win, great; if not, if I fail, it wouldn’t be so bad; it would be something that forms part of my career, but it won’t be something that defines my life,” he said.
Even if he wants to feel like one of the 573 French athletes competing, Léon Marchand is special. His popularity prevents him from staying at the villa with his teammates and leading a normal life because there is always a camera looking for him and someone asking for a photo or an autograph.
The lion mania started this week, but it has been brewing for some time. The 22-year-old swimmer, born in Toulouse, has already won five world titles. At the Tokyo Olympics, he competed in a final, and from then on, his career took off. He won gold in the 200 and 400-meter medley and silver in the 200-meter butterfly. Last year, in Japan, he won all three events.
Children walk with their parents to the metro in the vicinity of the Arena La Defensa, a stadium converted into an aquatic complex for the games, talking about Léon Marchand’s exploits, not Kylian Mbappé’s or Antoine Griezmann’s goals, which is normal even in a country with a much greater sports culture than ours.
Here, too, the “other sports” have their seasons and moments of glory. Gymnastics, swimming, and athletics, among others, will be the kings during the Olympic Games, and they will crown heroes different from those who dominate the front pages of newspapers and the headlines of television news during the rest of the year.
In France, Léon Marchand is the man of the moment, which is why many children dream of becoming swimmers and being like him.
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