The Olympic Games officially concluded on Sunday (August 11) with a star-studded closing ceremony at Stade de France. The USA finished on top of the medal tally with 40 gold medals, 44 silver and 42 bronze tallying 126 medals, becoming the only country to cross the 100 mark. Hosts France ended at fifth place with 16 gold medals four of which were won by one athlete, the 21-year-old swimmer Léon Marchand.
Overall, Marchand won five medals - four gold and one bronze. All of his gold medals won in individual events while the bronze came in the team event. He won gold in the 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly, 200m breaststroke, and 200m individual medley and secured the bronze in the 4*100m Medley Relay event. Interestingly, Marchand and his team finished fourth in the mixed 4*100m Medley Relay event to miss out on a medal by a whisker.
This achievement from the 21-year-old swimmer is better than a staggering 184 countries, including India, at the Paris Olympics. Only 15 countries have won more gold medals than Marchand while the likes of Sweden, Kenya, Norway and Ireland won four gold medals each at the Games this year.
Coming back to Marchand, he created an Olympic Record in all four events where he won the gold medal. These records are not a surprise for those who followed his progress over the years as Léon Marchand trained under the guidance of Bob Bowman, former mentor to US swimming legend Michael Phelps.
Here's the list of records Léon Marchand created at the Paris Olympics
Léon Marchand became the first swimmer from any country since 1976 to win two gold medals in a single day.
He became the fourth swimmer ever to win four individual gold medals at the same Olympic Games. The other three to do so are - Michael Phelps (five and four golds in two different Games), Mark Spitz (four golds) and Kristen Otto (four golds).
Léon Marchand broke the Olympic Record in all four finals where he won gold.
