Léon Marchand completes his dominating run through the Paris Olympics, capturing 4th swimming gold
NANTERRE, France (AP) — Léon Marchand held up four fingers.
One for every gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
His dominating run through the Summer Games is complete.
With French President Emmanuel Macron among the more than 15,000 fans cheering him on in person, Marchand captured his fourth swimming gold with another runaway victory in the 200-meter individual medley Friday night.
The 22-year-old French star left no doubt he’ll be remembered as one of the biggest stars of the Summer Games in his home country. He finished in an Olympic record of 1 minute, 54.06 seconds, just missing Ryan Lochte’s 13-year-old world mark.
That was about the only thing he didn’t accomplish at La Defense Arena, where he had previously won the 400 IM, 200 butterly and 200 backstroke — the latter two about two hours apart in the same night.
The silver went to Britain’s Duncan Scott, a body length behind at 1:55.31. China’s Wang Shun grabbed the bronze in 1:56.00, edging out American Carson Foster for a spot on the podium.
A packed house at La Defense Arena came to party one more night with their favorite son. They chanted, sang “Sweet Caroline,” waved the French tricolore flag and unveiled a huge tifo in the upper deck.
Marchand climbed from the pool, pumped his fists, then held out his arms as if to say, “What more could you want?”
Not a thing.
He had done it all, more than fulfilling the expectations of his nation and the comparisons to Michael Phelps.
What might have been a burden to some athletes only seemed to push Marchand to even greater heights.
Australian gold for McEvoy, McKeown
Before Marchand’s triumph, Cameron McEvoy and Kaylee McKeown won more gold for Australia.
McEvoy touched first in the 50 freestyle, denying Caeleb Dressel a repeat in swimming’s most frantic event. McKeown followed with a victory in the 200 backstroke to become the first female swimmer to sweep the back at two straight Summer Games.
McEvoy became the first Australian man to win gold at these games, and McKeown quickly boosted her country’s total to a leading seven golds overall.
McEvoy made it from one end of the pool to the other in 21.25, edging Benjamin Proud of Britain by five-hundredths of a second. Florent Manaudou of France thrilled the home crowd by taking the bronze in 21.56.
Dressel, who won five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, finished sixth in 21.61.
McKeown rallied again, just as she did in the 100 backstroke, to chase down perennial American runner-up Regan Smith. The winning time was an Olympic record of 2:03.73, breaking the mark that Missy Franklin set at the 2012 London Games.
Another silver for Regan Smith
Smith touched in 2:04.26 for the fifth silver medal of her career, to go along with a single bronze. She has yet to win gold.
The bronze went to Canada’s Kylie Masse in 2:05.57.
Smith insisted that she was satisfied with the result, even though a gold medal remained just out of reach.
“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. That wasn’t what I was capable of doing,” Smith said. “That’s one of my fastest times ever. I think I really gave Kaylee a run for it and I made things really close and exciting. So I’m thrilled with it.”
Dressel comes up short
The American star qualified in two individual events, and he won’t be winning a medal in either of them.
Shortly after his sixth-place showing in the 50 freestyle, he returned to the pool for the semifinals of the 100 butterfly — another of the events he won in Tokyo.
Dressel couldn’t pull off the grueling 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, welcoming his first child about five months ago, but he couldn’t recapture that blazing speed from three years ago.
“Obviously 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.”
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games