Paris Olympics: Léon Marchand lives up to the hype, and delights his native France — including President Macron

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PARIS — He’d been hyped as the host country’s hero before he even raced; anointed swimming’s heir to Michael Phelps before he had an Olympic medal. Léon Marchand was the face of the Paris Games before they began; the bearer of hope and Herculean expectation.

And on an ear-splitting Sunday night here at La Défense Arena, he lived up to every last ounce of it, winning the 400-meter individual medley in an Olympic-record time of 4:02.95 — nearly six seconds ahead of the field.

Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita took silver (4:08.62). American Carson Foster took bronze (4:08.66).

But it was Marchand, a 22-year-old Frenchman, who delighted 17,000 fans in attendance, plus millions more farther ashore — including French President Emmanuel Macron, who watched on TV surrounded by family, and phoned Marchand after the victorious swim.

“Everyone was screaming on the phone,” Marchand said with a smile.

And inside this rugby arena-turned-aquatics center in western Paris, they were screaming even louder.

They had gathered, first, in the 9 a.m. hour this morning. Hype built. The line of fans for preliminary heats stretched about a half-mile long. Most buzzed with excitement. Once inside, they roared at the mere sight of Marchand. They coordinated chants with his breath as he cruised to the top seed in the 400 IM on Sunday night.

“It was crazy,” Marchand said Sunday morning. It felt, to him, like a French football match; as if, by calmly exiting the pool, he had scored a massive goal.

And nine hours later, it was crazier. Flags twirled. An impromptu rendition of the French anthem, “La Marseillaise,” broke out 15 minutes before Marchand appeared. “Allez Les Bleus!” became “Allez Léon!” A packed house erupted as Marchand splashed down the home stretch, toward the wall, toward gold.

It was everything the understated star from Toulouse had hoped it would be when he set off on this path years ago, as a kid who was once uncomfortable and cold in water.

He was not, though, a prodigy like Phelps was. He was “tiny,” he recalled, and “not really a racer.” He was technically pristine as a young teen, but “at the time, I was not really good at swimming,” Marchand said. Then he grew, and his aerobic prowess rose to the surface.

At 17, he won a French championship in the 200-meter butterfly; he set a national record in the 400 IM; and he decided to leave home. He set his sights on top American universities. He chose Arizona State for its then-coach: Bob Bowman, who’d tutored and mentored Phelps to 23 Olympic gold medals.

And under Bowman, for three years, most of the time as an “undercover” college student, he became The Next Phelps; “the new monster.”

He set and re-set NCAA records. He won and defended championships. At worlds, on the international stage, he burst onto the scene with golds in 2022, then smashed Phelps’ last and longest-held world record in this 400 IM last summer. “What the f*** is happening?” he said.

And that’s when Marchand Mania truly began. The Olympics hovered on the horizon. Marchand and everyone around him knew they — the Games in Paris — would be bonkers.

“I’m never alone anymore, there’s always someone taking my picture or filming me,” Marchand said last summer. And he knew it’d “be even worse in Paris” — which says a lot about his personality.

He is “gentle,” and “polite,” and “laid-back,” coaches and teammates say. “He’s probably one of the most humble and kind people that you’ll ever meet,” Arizona State swimmer Patrick Sammon said. He is an introvert, not a spotlight-seeker, and so, the one variable that injected any sliver of doubt into his performance at these Olympics was everything around the pool.

But Marchand handled all of it. He handled it with aplomb. He won his first of what could be four golds in seven days here in Paris. And he erased the doubt.

The mania around him, instead, drove him into a lead that he extended stroke by stroke, 50 meters by 50 meters. He was chasing the world record, he said. He came up just short of the 4:02.50, but that didn’t infringe on his enthusiasm. He pumped his fist to the raucous crowd. He climbed out of the pool, and looked around, taking a few seconds to savor the spectacle.

Later, he stepped to a podium, and goosebumps covered his skin.

“I felt really proud to be myself,” he said. “And also to be French.”