Léon, Léon, Léon ... Marchand, World Male Swimmer Of 2024 After Soaring Golden-Rules Success at Home Olympics
SOS Awards 2024: there's just one choice for the top man in the pool, king of a home Paris 2024 Olympics, not only for his epic victories in the 200/400IM, 200 'fly & 200 breast but the rafters-rattling atmosphere they stirred in a hearty French crowd that took its hero and swimming to heart
No swimmer, not even Michael Phelps, had even claimed Olympic gold in both 200 and 400m medley, the 200m butterfly and the 200m breaststroke before Léon Marchand, the Frenchman with whom Paris 2024 will forever be synonymous.
That unique sent of four draws parallels with the feats of Summer McIntosh, our global Female Swimmer Of 2024:
Craig Lord
Unlike Phelps, Marchand did not spend his entire swimming career under the tutelage of one coach, but after the fine early work of Nicolas Castel in Toulouse, Bob Bowman's polishing-plus was tangible in every stroke, surge and partisan cry of "Léon, Léon" that swept the 22-year-old multi-verse of swim skills towards the most decorated French pantheon in the history of Olympic sport at the third Games in Paris since it all began in 1896.
