French Swimmer Léon Marchand Makes History Winning 2 Gold Medals Hours Apart At Olympics
Léon Marchand is making history in his hometown at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Marchand's performances in the 200m butterfly and breaststroke races — nearly two hours apart — set new Olympic record times Wednesday night.
The back-to-back golds made the 22-year-old, who won gold in the 400 individual medley days before, the first swimmer to win the 200 fly and breaststroke in the same Olympic Games.
"I knew it was possible for me to do, but just finish those races, maybe not win them. I had never known that [was possible]. That's why I was swimming," he said, per the Olympics' official website. "I was trying to get that surprise for me." On Sunday, Marchand won the men's 400m individual medley at Paris 2024.
"The double was something I'd been thinking about for quite some time. After the 200m breaststroke, I think I've finished the marathon," he continued. "I've done six races in a day and a half, so that's a lot, and I took advantage of it to enjoy myself at the end of the race and to celebrate because I won two gold medals in two hours, which is pretty incredible for me."
In the breaststroke, the swimmer touched the wall with a time of 2min 5.85sec. 'France 24' reports the breaststroke race was Marchand's first in a major international competition. In doing so, he set a new Olympic record and achieved the second-fastest time of all time.
Zac Stubblety-Cook of Australia, the defending champion from Tokyo, finished with silver 0.94 seconds. Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands claimed bronze.
Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps' former coach, is Marchand's trainer.
"The way he handled it. His attitude about it was amazing," Bowman said, according to the outlet. "The way that he put different parts of it and lands how to swim each race were just exactly why I'm so proud."
Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals, called the Toulouse, France, native's back-to-back gold medal wins the "greatest double" in swimming.
"The cheer, everything there, the electricity - I can't wait to talk to him to hear what it felt like," Phelps, 39, told 'NBC.'
"That's probably the greatest double I've ever seen in the history of the sport. To be able to go 1:52 and 2:05 — the kid can obviously swim, we know that, and if we didn't know it before, he's gonna be here for a long time," Phelps said. "He's gonna make a lot of noise."
