Interrupted races, beer throwing and Michael Phelps… The wildest celebrations after Léon Marchand’s incredible double
“It’s King Leon!” : emotion, thrill… All this rhymes with Léon. From the stands of Paris La Défense Arena, the lair of the French swimmer’s exploits, to Lyon, via the fan zones and the Club France, Léon Marchand caused a real tidal wave across France on Wednesday, July 31. At only 22 years old, the Toulouse native became a triple Olympic champion after his two new victories in the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke.
And as proof of the “Leon-mania” that France is sinking into, we were able to witness scenes that until now were reserved for very important football matches.
So, if, around the Olympic swimming pool of Paris La Défense Arena, the supporters screamed with all their might to support the champion in his historic quest, a little further away, in the fan zones, we were able to witness scenes of jubilation sometimes accompanied by the now famous beer throwing, as is the tradition of English supporters, seen at Club France.
And, even more surprisingly, busy French fans in other Paris 2024 sports arenas have started singing the Marseillaise or chanting the name of Léon Marchand. This was the case in Lyon, for example.
At the Grand Palais, the team sabre final between South Korea and Hungary had to be briefly interrupted due to the volume of the fans. An identical scene at the Porte de Versailles in the Arena Sud where France’s Jia Nan Yuan faced Japan’s Hina Hayata in the round of 16 of the table tennis tournament, when Léon Marchand beat Hungary’s Kristof Milak by a few hundredths of a second on the last length of the 200m butterfly.
