NANTERRE, France (AP) — The French put on an incredible show at the Olympic swimming pool, packing the place with screaming, flag-waving fans waving larger-than-life cutout faces and wearing The Tricolore on their cheeks.
Raucous and patriotic, the fans pushed beloved countryman Léon Marchand to four individual gold medals and a bronze in the men’s 4×100-meter medley relay on Sunday night to cap his sensational week of swimming at home.
Swimming fans are eager to see if organizers of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles — where swimming will be in SoFi Stadium — can match the atmosphere at La Defense Arena for the Paris Games.
That spirit was on display Sunday night when the relay foursome of Marchand, Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Maxime Grousset and Florent Manaudou walked out to the pool deck hand in hand to the cheers of the crowd one last time. Anchor Manaudou faced the stands and lifted his arms up calling on the supporters to roar once more.
Marchand loved the national pride for the team.
“Just as much as the other medals. Now it’s shared, so it’s multiplied,” he said. “That was so good. At 300 meters we hugged each other because we thought we’d be first. That was emotionally special, the last Olympic race at home. That’s the cherry on the top of the cake tonight.”
Julien Issoulié, the French Swimming Federation’s National Technical Director, said the Paris set the bar high for those in Southern California organizing the swimming competition at the home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood.
“It’s a big challenge for LA now, because we showed to the people that we can do something special in France, and now it’s a challenge for (the U.S.) to do that well,” Issoulié said.
The venue will be able to hold 38,000 for swimming events, that’s 20,000 more fans than the capacity at the Paris Games. And the schedule is changing, with swimming held the second week of the Games rather than in Week 1 as has been for years.
Marchand and his teammates hope to build on their once-in-a-lifetime Olympics.
“It’s so cool. I tasted a lot of world and European medals for the relay but never with this energy. To see these emotions for Maxime and Yohann was the best way to finish the week,” Manaudou said. “I’m so happy, thanks to Leon, who launched us so well at the start of the week.
“We won’t live something like that again. Even if we host the European championship in 2026, it won’t be with that crowd, so I told the boys to enjoy it all around the pool, even if it takes 20 minutes.”
Issoulié, of course, considers the competition an enormous success.
“It was mainly what we were dreaming about,” Issoulié said. “We gained our maximum finals number so we met a lot of personal records and we are really happy about that and happy for all of the team.”
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