Leon Marchand WINS historic double gold in 200m Butterfly and 200m Breaststroke to become a double Olympic champion in one session

It was the night France will remember long after these Olympics have gone. A night when the poster boy of these Games powered to two golds in the space of two extraordinary hours.

Leon Marchand set Olympic records in both but it was the manner of his 200 metres breaststroke victory which confirmed his utter domination of his sport, amid the monumental din of a crowd shouting ‘Ole’ every time his face emerged from the water. 

This place was transfixed and so too, it seemed, every bar in all of Paris, as the 22-year-old led from the start and powered to a win in 2:05.85 — nearly a second clear. It put the seal on one of the most spectacular doubles in Olympic history.

Paris orchestrated it this way. Last night’s schedule was set up to give Marchand the chance to win the finals of both 200m butterfly and breaststroke, with an hour and 50 minutes’ recovery time between.

But no one could have scripted the monumental first final, with Marchand trailing Olympic champion and world-record holder Kristof Milak, only to surge past him in an extraordinary last 50m.

Marchand stunned with a 200m Butterfly gold in what was considered his less likely chance at a win

He then added his second gold – and Olympic record – with the 200m Breaststroke around two hours later

That surge came through what they call Marchand’s ‘fifth stroke’ — the dolphin-like power which enables him to swim with extraordinary strength. His push against the wall at the last turn propelled him closer to Milak, whom he beat by four-hundredths of a second in an Olympic record of 1min 51.71sec.

After spotting the ‘1’ beside his name on the scoreboard, Marchand shook his head just a bit, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he had done. The limited preparation time for the second race was further restricted by the medal ceremony for the first, yet the Frenchman’s approach to the latter final revealed utter composure.

He casually removed his long white jacket, long after his opponents had prepared themselves for the swim, and didn’t look back.

For Team GB, Oliver Morgan failed to make the final of the 200m backstroke, after Luke Greenbank was disqualified from his heat earlier in the day when he went underwater for too far at the start of his race. Laura Stephens made the final of the women’s 200m butterfly.

On Friday morning, Marchand is back in the pool to swim in the heats of the 200m individual medley, going up against Britain’s Duncan Scott. By Saturday night, he could have won a fourth gold.