The swimmer, crowned in the 200m medley after his titles in the 400m medley, 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke, did notably better than the skier Jean-Claude Killy, who won three individual gold medals in 1968 at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble.
:quality(50)/2023/07/05/64a55fd777de4_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 2 min
:quality(50)/2024/08/02/000-36894n9-66acd584b3e30348850479.jpg)
Léon Marchand sits at the top of Olympus. Crowned Olympic champion in the 200m medley on Friday, August 2 at the Paris La Défense Arena, the swimmer became the most decorated Frenchman at the same Games, with four gold medals.
With this harvest of individual titles (400 m medley, 200 m butterfly, 200 m breaststroke, 200 m medley), the swimmer has done better than Jean-Claude Killy (skiing) and Paul Masson (cycling), who had won three individual gold medals. The skier had won three titles at the Winter Games in Grenoble in 1968 (slalom, giant slalom, downhill), as had the cyclist at the Athens Games in 1896 (individual speed, time trial and 10 km). Léon Marchand also passed the biathlete Martin Fourcade (pursuit, mass start, and mixed relay in 2018), the cyclist Robert Charpentier (three individual and team medals in 1936) and the fencer Roger Ducret (three individual and team medals in 1924).
Many athletes have also won two gold medals in the same Games (individually or in teams) including Quentin Fillon Maillet (2022), Clarisse Agbégnénou (2021), Yannick Agnel (2012), Félicia Ballanger (2000), Marie-José Pérec (1996) and Micheline Ostermeyer (1948).
Léon Marchand, 22, is closing in on Martin Fourcade, the most successful French athlete in the history of the Olympic Games. The biathlete has won five gold medals in two editions of the Olympic Games (two in 2014, three in 2018). But the swimmer joins fencers Lucien Gaudin (1924, 1928) and Christian d’Oriola (1948, 1952, 1956) with four Olympic titles. Teddy Riner, a judo champion, has also joined this very exclusive club. The judoka, who won individual gold in 2012 and 2016 and team gold in 2021, triumphed on Friday in the +100 kg category.
Many French athletes have won three gold medals. These include Marie-José Pérec, who won the 400m in 1992 in Barcelona before her double (200m – 400m) in Atlanta in 1996, as well as Tony Estanguet, three-time Olympic champion in the 400m.anoë slalom (2000, 2004, 2012), track cyclist Félicia Ballanger (speed in 1996, speed and 500 m in 2000), or handball players Luc Abalo, Michaël Guigou and Nikola Karabatic (2008, 2012, 2021). And the latter could still add a gold medal to his list of achievements if France becomes Olympic champion on August 11.