NANTERRE, France (AP) — With a flag-waving crowd cheering his every stroke, Léon Marchand delivered a swimming gold for France with a dominating victory in the men’s 400-meter individual medley Sunday night.
Marchand was ahead as soon as his head popped from the water and he steadily pulled away from the field in what was essentially two separate races: Marchand racing the clock and everyone else competing for silver and bronze.
He was under world-record pace on the final turn but faded a bit coming home, touching in 4 minutes, 2.95 seconds — an Olympic record, but just shy of his own world mark of 4:02.50. Marchand claimed that mark at last year’s world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, erasing a record held by Michael Phelps for 15 years.
Not surprisingly, the young Frenchman has drawn comparisons to Phelps and is guided by the same coach, American Bob Bowman, who was with the most decorated athlete in Olympic history throughout his career.
Marchand lived up to those staggering expectations, for one night at least, and fulfilled the hopes of the host nation with a performance that sets him up to be one of the biggest stars of the Paris Games.
And Phelps was in the building to witness it, analyzing the race for NBC.
Not long after Marchand walked off deck, Torri Huske knocked off world-record holder Gretchen Walsh in the women’s 100 butterfly, using a strong finish to get her hands to the wall just ahead of her teammate in a 1-2 finish for the United States.
The favorite went out with her usual strategy: start fast and try to hold on. It worked at the U.S. trials, where she set her world record of 55.18 last month, and she was under record pace at the turn.
But Huske chased her down in the race that really mattered. The winner touched in 55.59 — about the length of a finger ahead of Walsh’s time of 55.63.
When Huske saw the “1” beside her name of the scoreboard, she reached across the lane rope to give Walsh and hug while breaking down in tears.
Zhang Yufei of China claimed the bronze in 56.21, which is sure to raise eyebrows since she was one of nearly two dozen swimmers from her country who tested positive for a banned substance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics but were allowed to compete. Zhang has insisted that she’s racing clean.
Of course, on Day 2 of swimming, everyone was playing second fiddle to Marchand.
La Defense Arena was packed with more than 15,000 fans, many of them with their faces painted in the blue, white and red of the tricolore banner.
Chants of “Léon! Léon! Léon!” and an impromtu rendition of “La Marseillaise” broke out in the rugby stadium a full 15 minutes before Marchand walked on deck for the first final of evening.
The 22-year-old Marchand, who trained in the U.S. while attending Arizona State University, seemed to have the weight of all of France on his broad shoulders. He came through with flying colors to capture the first gold medal of his career, but surely not the last.
The silver went to Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita, who finished nearly 6 seconds behind the winner in 4:08.62. American Carson Foster claimed the bronze at 4:08.66.
The defending Olympic champion, 30-year-old Chase Kalisz of the U.S., was eliminated in the preliminaries when he failed to post one of the top eight times.
Marchand had to wait for everyone else to finish, then he climbed on the lane rope and pumped his left fist for an adoring crowd that packed a stadium normally used by famed rugby club Racing 92.
An appropriate venue for this performance.
No one raced faster than Marchand.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
