That moment when he finishes a lap, flips his body over, presses his feet upon the wall and fires himself forward. Down in the silence, he made up the difference. Then he rode that noise home for the first of two gold medals on this night that turned a young man into something these Olympics so desperately needed.
Paris was awarded the Games in September Marchand was 15 then, a teenage swimmer in his home in Toulouse, a 2,year-old city of terra-cotta houses, a half-million people and a view of the Pyrenees Mountains. Marchand was promising, sure, but no one pegged him as a mega-prodigy destined to be the face of these Games. Paris is in love. The kind of love they sing about in songs. Most importantly, requited. He is theirs. They are his. Once inside, they delivered an energy that turned from anticipatory to something else entirely.
A heartbeat. Marchand got to the block, put his head down and realized what was in front of him. Marchand touched the wall in It was his first Olympic medal of any kind. Leon Marchand wins m IM gold in front of an electric crowd in Paris! The noise began when they knew he was on the way. Then he emerged from the tunnel to the pool deck to the sound of thunder. Fans began catching trains around mid-to-late afternoon, making their way to the western suburb of Nanterre. It would be an agonizingly long wait to see their man swim again.
An p. The crowd swelled as the arena opened its doors 90 minutes before the start of the session. Scalpers offered Category C tickets i. Two solo strangers were interested and debated whether they should buy them together and agreed to the deal. So did the 1, euros scalpers were asking for Category A tickets. Fifty-four minutes after winning the m butterfly, Marchand returned to the deck for the medal ceremony. Atop the podium, Marchand only scanned the space and smiled.
When he returned for his nightcap, the ovation felt like a thank you. And a thank you for what everyone seemingly knew he was about to do. A Another Olympic record , one set in a delirious final 50 meters with the crowd lurching closer and closer until they were all in the pool with him.
