Four individual Olympic gold medals at Paris 2024 — the most extraordinary individual haul at a single Games since Michael Phelps at Beijing 2008. The French swimmer won the 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly, 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley across four days of competition, closing each final in front of a roaring home crowd that made Paris 2024 one of the great atmospheres in Olympic swimming history. His versatility across strokes is unmatched in the modern era.
Léon Marchand was born in Toulouse, France in 2001. Bob Bowman — Michael Phelps' longtime coach — trained him at Arizona State University. At the Paris 2024 Olympics he won four individual gold medals in four days — the 400m medley (world record), 200m butterfly, 200m breaststroke and 200m medley — a feat last achieved by Mark Spitz in 1972. He lit the Olympic cauldron at the Paris 2024 closing ceremony. His versatility across all four strokes is technically without parallel since Michael Phelps. He is considered by many swimming analysts as the most gifted swimmer since Phelps and the most significant French Olympian since Marie-José Pérec.
Multiple Olympic gold medals and world records in swimming
How They Played
Versatile swimmer specializing in individual medley and butterfly
Lasting Impact
Historic performance at Paris 2024 Olympics with 4 gold medals
Olympic Gold 4x (Paris 2024)
Career Honours
- Olympic Gold 4x (Paris 2024)
- World Record 400m IM
- World Champion 5x