MADRID, 2 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
French swimmer Leon Marchand continues to be one of the sensations at the Paris Olympic Games and on Friday he continued his medal haul at the La Défense pool by winning another gold in the 200-metre medley.
Like French judoka Teddy Rineur, the Frenchman achieved another success in the event under the watchful eye of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, although this was not accompanied by a world record. He now has four gold medals after those won in the 400-metre medley, the 200-metre breaststroke and the 200-metre butterfly.
Marchand dominated the race at will and gave no chance to his rivals, who limited themselves to fighting for the silver and bronze medals, while the Frenchman fought against himself and against the world record held by the American Ryan Lochte since 2011.
The champion touched the wall in 1:54.06, just six hundredths of a second off the American’s mark, but he did beat Michael Phelps’ Olympic record (1:54.23), while Britain’s Duncan Scott, who was more than a second behind, took silver, and the champion in Tokyo, China’s Wang Shun, took bronze almost two seconds behind.
On the other hand, Australian swimmer Kaylee McKeown completed, as she did in Tokyo 2020, the double in the backstroke distance by winning the final of the 200 metres, also with a new Olympic record of 2:03.73, more than half a second ahead of American Regan Smith, who took her third silver medal at the Games, and Canadian Kylie Masse, who snatched bronze from American Phoebe Bacon by four hundredths of a second.
Finally, in the third major final of the day in La Défensa, there was also an Australian victory thanks to Cameron McEvoy, who won the 50-metre freestyle by 21.25 seconds, beating Benjamin Proud by five hundredths, and the Frenchman Florent Manaudou by 31.