LEON MARCHAND WON’T BE TARZAN, BUT HE MIGHT BE MICHAEL PHELPS REPRISED
He won four individual gold medals at the Paris Olympics, in his homeland, and while he won’t repeat the movie stardom of Johnny Weissmuller from 100 years ago, his swim performances conjure Phelps
Here’s a guess he won’t play a movie hero, unlike Johnny Weissmuller after he won three swimming gold medals in Paris, exactly 100 years ago. “Me Leon, you Jane,” is not what we’ll hear next from a new Tarzan reared by apes. But he is a monstrous lion, moving from one victory ceremony to another as the euphoric French keep singing the Neil Diamond hit, “Sweet Caroline,” and shout his name into the night.
Leon Marchand says he’s bashful. How can that be possible when they won’t stop chanting “La Marseillaise,” the national anthem? This as President Emmanuel Macron greets him again and again and writes, “The impossible isn’t French! Four home gold medals and a new Olympic record — it’s historic. It’s Leon Marchand.” This as his face is everywhere across the five-ringed city, on whatever endorsements he chooses, from Louis Vuitton to Omega to Phelps Reinvigorated.
The third part is fun and games, but only because he reminds us of the almighty idol who won 28 medals and 23 of a golden shine. Such brave reminders aren’t supposed to happen, but with Michael Phelps watching at La Defense Arena — while 15,000 joined him and 20,000 more watched outside the French Olympic house — Marchand easily spelled out “quatre” after his final individual event at the Summer Games.
Phelps did it twice. Mark Spitz did it once.
Realize what we’re seeing in America, a nation that no longer owns the global pool.
“That’s crazy. Those guys are legends,” Marchand said Friday night after taking the 200-meter medley. “I don’t think I have realized it yet. Maybe I will in a few days.”
Will he? “I don’t think anything went wrong,” he said. “It was just perfect.”
A sports star in France is expected to be bubbly, grinning and drinking as he hops through numerous arrondissements, as we remember Yannick Noah the tennis player. Marchand only understands crowd noise when funneling roars into his performances. “I’m a really shy person,” he said. “I was kind of the center of attention. I was trying to get the energy from the whole crowd. I could hear it underwater. They’re amazing to me, pushing me in every final. I think that was why I was able to win.”
He reached across the ocean to expand his future. Why not chase Bob Bowman? He coached Phelps to complete domination and the greatest of swim moments, eight 2008 golds in Beijing. Without warning, four years ago, he emailed Bowman and asked if a scholarship was possible at Arizona State. He wrote: “Dear sir, I am a French swimmer, my name is Leon Marchand (18 years old). I would like to join the university of Arizona State in summer 2021 for swim and compete in NCAA with your amazing team. Do you think I could benefit from a scholarship? What level of education is. Required? (TOEFL, SAT …) You will find attached my presentation sheet. Thank you for the time granted to my request. Sportingly, Leon.”
“Sportingly,” wisecracked Bowman, who has been blessed twice.
Now 22, Marchand is referred to as the “French Michael Phelps.” That might seem a tad arrogant considering Team USA has struggled, with Caeleb Dressel weeping Friday after poor swims as he tried to repeat as a champion in two events. “Tough day. Tough day at the office,” he said. But Bowman recalled the past. Marchand’s father, Xavier, was a two-time Olympian who married another Olympic swimmer, Celine.
They will brace themselves for more love and heat from their countrypeople. “I’m extremely proud to be French,” Leon said. Macron and soccer fans lost native Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid, but Marchand is only headed to his next practice. He’ll be front and center in Los Angeles for his nation, including Macron, assuming he’s in office.
“He told me that he was watching the final with his whole family and everyone was screaming on the phone," Marchand said. “It was kind of funny.”
With appropriate claps, the fans chant, “LE-ON! LE-ON!”
They won’t stop for many years.
So if he wants to be shy, perhaps they won’t let him.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.