'King Léon': Marchand wins unthinkable Olympic double in span of 116 minutes

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PARIS — In the multi-century history of swimming at the Olympics, no one — no man, no woman, no superhuman, not even Michael Phelps — had ever won medals in both butterfly and breaststroke.

On Wednesday here at Paris La Défense Arena, with two golden Olympic-record swims, Léon Marchand did it in a span of 116 minutes.

He emerged from a makeshift tunnel at 8:38 p.m. Propelled by an ear-rattling French roar, he ripped past Hungarian star Kristof Milak down the home stretch to win the 200-meter butterfly. He wagged his finger. He gently clenched a fist. He pulled himself up out of the pool, and waved to the crowd.

Then he beelined toward a warm-down pool. Somewhere in the 9 p.m. hour, it became a warm-up pool. At 10:32, he emerged once again, led wire-to-wire in the 200-meter breaststroke, and won his third gold of the 2024 Games.

This time, he smacked the water, then smacked it again. He raised both arms triumphantly. And for a moment, he stood still, first by the starting blocks, and later on a podium, soaking in history.

He had come to Paris as the host nation’s great golden hope. On his second splendid night of these Olympics, with resounding swims that reverberated around France, he became a certified legend. "King Léon!" a French commentator extolled.

And he even surprised himself.

“I knew it was possible for me to do [both] — but just to finish those races, maybe not win them,” Marchand said, and then he chuckled. “I never knew that [was possible].”

This was, in swimming parlance, a “double” so unusual that the two finals had originally been scheduled back-to-back on Wednesday night. One stroke, the fly, is an out-to-in motion above water; the other, breast, is an in-to-out motion underwater. Since the fly was added to the Olympic program in 1956, the closest anyone had come to medaling in both was American Mary Sears, who won bronze in the inaugural 100 fly and finished seventh in the 200 breast. The vast majority of swimmers only attempt one or the other.

Then along came Marchand, a French phenom, “the new monster,” The Next Michael Phelps.

"There are not many people who try this double, it's a bit weird,” he acknowledged last month. “But I like weird.”

So, over the past year, he considered perhaps the most ambitious night of Olympic swimming ever. His coaches, meanwhile, lobbied for a schedule tweak. Organizers “had never encountered this problem, because until now, no very high-level swimmer had done the 200 breaststroke and the 200 butterfly,” French swimming technical director Julien Issoulié told French newspaper Le Monde. They eventually agreed to move the 200 breast toward the end of the night, making the double possible, though still highly improbable.

And Marchand, 22, an aerobic freak and underwater master, made it plausible.

Over three years under coach Bob Bowman — the longtime tutor and mentor of Phelps — at Arizona State University, Marchand refined the rhythm of various doubles. He regularly swam twice per night at Pac-12 championships and NCAAs. He set and reset collegiate records, all while readying himself for this Olympic stage. “I've done way, way more difficult [doubles], I think, in the NCAA season,” he said.

This, though, was a double at an Olympics. It was a different animal. An unprecedented animal.

But so is Marchand.

At French trials last month, between the two races, "my vision was blurred," he said. "It's like I was under anesthesia, kind of sleepy. I should have eaten something." But, he said afterward: "I've always liked back-to-back races in intense competitions. I recuperate quite quickly. I love this." He qualified first in both.

And when he won the 400-meter individual medley on Sunday, with strong butterfly and breaststroke legs, he committed to the double — which required six swims totaling 1.2 kilometers over 36 hours.

“We can do it,” Bowman told him.

So, on Tuesday, he cruised through both races twice — prelims in the morning, semifinals in the evening. The semis were roughly 75 minutes apart; Marchand still finished first in both of his heats.

His mythical stature grew with each of them. Competitors spoke in awe about one day being able to tell their kids they shared a pool or a podium with him. Teammates marveled. “He’s Poseidon,” French backstroker Yohann Ndoye Brouard said. “I swear, he’s Aquaman.”

And on Wednesday, he did what many in the sport would’ve considered unthinkable.

In the fly, he trailed Milak by more than a half-second at the 50, and still at the 100, and still at the 150. Then he blew past a fading Milak, outpacing him by 1.26 seconds of the final 50. His nation erupted as charged. The rafters shook. “I could hear the whole pool going crazy,” Marchand later said. “I think that's why I was able to win that race.”

The rush of emotion was irresistible. Marchand, though, stayed level. “I enjoyed it without losing too much energy,” he said in French. He disappeared from public view to refocus.

At 9:34 p.m., he appeared for a medal ceremony. At 9:37, with fans jumping for joy behind him and chanting his name, he ascended onto a podium. At 9:39, he smiled with pride and nodded his head as “La Marseillaise,” the French anthem, climaxed. At 9:40, he took a selfie — then skipped a celebratory lap around the pool deck, to go prepare for Part Deux.

And around an hour later, he won it. At 10:50, body weary, he stepped onto the podium’s top step yet again. He put his hands together, and bowed in appreciation. He smiled, satisfied, fulfilled.

He had done the unprecedented, the unimaginable. And even if there were precedent, he won two golds in two hours. “And that,” he said, with all the humility in the world, “is quite incredible.”