Most Olympians would be thoroughly satisfied with one gold medal — but French swimmer Leon Marchand collected two on the same day in historic fashion.
Competing in his native country, the 22-year-old pulled off a feat that hadn’t been done in Olympic history by winning the 200-meter butterfly and 200-meter breaststroke — let alone nearly two hours apart.
Marchand’s Wednesday began at 2:37 p.m. ET with the men’s 200-meter butterfly, which he won with an Olympic record time of 1:51.21 to beat Hungary’s Kristof Milak — the world record holder and defending Olympic champion — despite trailing through three of the four 50-meter laps by pulling through with an electrifying finish.
He beat Milak’s Olympic record by four-hundredths of a second.
Then, hours later at 4:31 p.m. ET, Marchand propelled himself to the front of the line in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke competition, finishing with a time of 2:05.85 to establish a new Olympic record — beating out Zac Stubblety-Cook, the reigning Olympic champion. Stubblety took silver in 2:06.79.
With his second victory, the rising superstar became the first Olympian to win a butterfly and breaststroke medal in the same Olympics, not to mention the first Olympian to win two individual gold medals on the same day since East Germany’s Kornelia Ender in 1976.
“I really enjoyed every moment of those two finals,” Marchand said, according to the AP. “It was really amazing for, for me to swim. Those was really good opponents too. The (200) fly was crazy for me. I’m really proud of everything.”
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Marchand, who competes collegiately for Arizona State University, brought his gold medal count to an astonishing three, including his triumph in the 400-meter medley on Sunday.
In fact, the wunderkind has accrued either more or as many gold medals by himself as Italy, Canada and Germany.
The unbelievable accomplishment comes in Marchand’s second Olympic Games, although he never finished above sixth in Tokyo in 2021.
In the college ranks, Marchand is a 10-time NCAA champion and the reigning three-time Pac-12 Men’s Swimmer of the Year with the Sun Devils.
Marchand has proven to be one of the breakout stars of competition from his home nation, generating goosebump-raising applause with every additional lap from Paris’ La Defense Arena.
Backed by Marchand’s heroics, France has notched eight gold medals — tied for the second-most among any country — and 26 overall medals, good for second behind the United States.”