Leon Marchand is unstoppable. Just two hours after overpowering reigning Olympic champion Kristof Milak in the Men’s 200m Butterfly, the 22 year-old Frenchman delivered his second gold medal, and second Olympic Record of the night, in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke.
 
His 2:05.85 over the four laps took more than half a second off the existing Olympic Record set by Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook at Tokyo 2020. Stubblety-Cook was second in the final with Caspar Corbeau third. Earlier in the night Marchand stripped the Olympic Record off another finalist, touching in 1:51.21 in the Men’s 200m Butterfly final ahead of then record-holder Kristof Milak and Ilya Kharun.
 
Tonight’s swims, in front of a full-house at Paris La Defense Arena, delivered even more history for the sport’s newest superstar. He is now the first French male or female to win a Breaststroke gold medal at an Olympic Games, having earlier become France’s second-ever swimmer to win gold outside of the Freestyle events. The first was then 18-year old Charles Devendeville who 124 years ago won the Underwater Swimming event in the Seine at Paris 1900.
 
Marchand’s three gold medals and three Olympic records at these games now makes him France’s most successful Olympic swimmer, with the nation only having won seven individual gold medals prior to Paris across 28 editions of the games.

He also became the first swimmer since Breaststroke was added to the games schedule in 1904 to win a gold medal in both a Breaststroke event and a non-breaststroke event at the same games.

Olympics Records – Paris 2024

55.38 - Gretchen Walsh (USA), Women’s 100m Butterfly

4:02.95 – Leon Marchand (FRA), Men’s 400m Individual Medley

46.92* – Pan Zhanle (CHN), Men’s 100m Freestyle [broken in 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay]

1:53.27 - Mollie O'Callaghan (AUS), Women’s 200m Freestyle

57.33 – Kaylee McKeown (AUS), Women’s 100m Backstroke

7:38.19 – Daniel Wiffen (IRL), Men’s 800m Freestyle

1:51.21 – Leon Marchand (FRA), Men’s 200m Butterfly

15:30.02 – Katie Ledecky (USA), Women’s 1500m Freestyle

2:05.85 – Leon Marchand (FRA), Men’s 200m Breaststroke

46.40 – Pan Zhanle (CHN), Men’s 100m Freestyle

3:28.92 - M.O'Callaghan, S.Jack, E.McKeon, M.Harris (AUS), Women’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay

 

*re-broken during competition