France’s Leon Marchand delights home crowd by winning 400m individual medley gold in Olympic record

Leon Marchand has the world file within the 400m particular person medley and gained the World Championships in that occasion in 2022 and 2023. He was lacking one factor – an Olympic gold medal. However now the French swimmer has that too.

Marchand led for your entire race and broke Michael Phelps’ Olympic file with a time of 4:02.95.

Swimming: Males’s 400 particular person medley podium

Gold medal: Leon Marchand, France
Silver medal: Tomoyuki Matsushita, Japan
Bronze medal: Carson Foster, USA

Earlier than Marchand was even introduced, the group at La Protection Area had been chanting his identify and singing “Marsellaise.” They erupted into cheers when he was introduced, and Marchand raised each arms and waved to the group.

As soon as he was within the pool, Marchand led for your entire race. He didn’t seem to have a weak stroke, as he by no means let any opponents again into the race. As soon as his win was official, Marchand sat on the lane divider and waved to the screaming crowds. He had a large smile on his face from the second he stepped onto the rostrum within the medal ceremony, and he closed his eyes for a second as he joined his compatriots in singing the nationwide anthem.

“The ambiance was wonderful, I do not know how you can clarify it. I had goosebumps earlier than, and in the course of the race too. On the breaststroke part I may hear everybody simply cheering for me. That was particular and successful at present was actually wonderful for me,” Marchand mentioned after the swim.

The true battle ended up coming for the silver and bronze medals. Japan’s Matsushita Tomoyuki out-touched Carson Foster from the U.S., with Matshushita successful by 0.04 seconds. Nice Britain’s Max Litchfield took fourth.

Chase Kalisz from the U.S., who gained gold within the 400 IM on the Olympic Video games Tokyo 2020, didn’t make the ultimate.