Mohamed Magdy  

41 C

the new king of Olympic swimming

Léon Marchand stood atop the podium Wednesday night and looked sheepishly around La Defense Arena, where thousands of fans sang -- or, more accurately, yelled in key -- along to every word of "La Marseillaise," the French national anthem.

While he appeared to be a mixture of amused and in disbelief, he later admitted he was shy and didn't love being the center of attention. But he sang along too, and smiled widely when it was over.


And then he took a brief victory lap around the arena before heading out of sight.

But it wasn't because he wanted to escape the sudden glare. He simply had another race for which to prepare.

After winning the 200-meter butterfly following an incredible late-race comeback to become the first French swimmer in history to win multiple individual gold medals at one Games, Marchand had less than 50 minutes from the time he collected his medal until he needed to be on the starting block for the 200m breaststroke final. No swimmer had ever won an Olympic medal in both the butterfly and the breaststroke -- let alone on the same night -- and Marchand had been aiming to achieve the seemingly impossible.

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