France has a new king … and he’s started a revolution

Leon Marchand resembled a fresh, young prince, at best, when he sauntered out for his first swim of the Paris Games. Three gold medals later, he is ‘Le Roi, Leon!’

Leon Marchand in full flight in Paris. Picture: Getty Images

“Le Roi, Leon.” I first saw those words on the wall of Cafe Joyeux on the Champs-Elysees. I asked a waitress for a translation. Her espresso was great, but conversation was difficult. The staff here have mental disabilities. The joint was created to give them all jobs. Which makes Cafe Joyeux one of the best little coffee haunts in Paris.

I departed none the wiser. Then I saw the same mesmerising words on a boy’s off-white T-shirt on the underground Metro train between Invalides and Charles de Gaulle Etoile. A picture of a handsome young fella was on the back. It was Leon Marchand, the shy, dapper, much-hyped 22-year-old Frenchman who would supposedly do an Ian Thorpe and take his home Olympics by storm. My comical naivete and lack of French tongue, which doesn’t extend far beyond “bonjour”, “merci” and “tres bien”, made me think the translation was The Boy, Leon. Which would have suited him.

I saw the words for a third time on a banner at Les Spectacles Brasserie at Bercy and decided it was time for a thorough investigation. I didn’t have to look far. The sign had an exclamation mark, and an English translation: “Le Roi, Leon! The King, Leon!” Which seemed presumptuous and arrogant, hardly your typical French attributes. He hadn’t won a thing, and resembled a fresh, young prince, at best, when he sauntered out for his first swim of the Paris Games on Sunday morning.

Morning heats at the Olympics are pretty casual affairs. Superstars gently roll the arm over and conserve energy while qualifying for the evening’s semi-finals or finals. Audience engagement isn’t usually at fever pitch. And yet 22-year-old Leon’s arrival at La Defense Arena made the walls shake. It was like Sachin Tendulkar scoring a hundred at Mumbai; like Queensland running onto Suncorp Stadium for State of Origin; and we hadn’t even tucked into brunch yet.

There were definite flashbacks of Thorpe, the great young Thorpedo, holding Sydney in the palm of his hand in 2000.

Ian Thorpe holds his 400m freestyle gold medal at the Sydney Games in 2000.

Leon got up in his heat of the 400m individual medley. He said of the bonkers reception: “It’s a crazy thing. It was huge when I was in the lane. It was beyond my ­expectations. Everybody was shouting my name. I tried to stay within myself and conserve some energy for the afternoon. I can free myself from the pressure now and take a breath”.

That evening, Le Roi-in-waiting became the 400m individual medley Olympic champion.

“I definitely dreamed of this,” he said. “Every one of us did.

“Doing this in my hometown is pretty cool. The atmosphere was amazing and I don’t know how to explain it. I had goosebumps before and during the race. On the breaststroke section I could hear everyone cheering for me”.

“That was special. Winning is amazing. I was trying to focus on myself but it’s really hard when 15,000 people are cheering for me. I did well in trying to use this energy to swim as fast as possible. I was trying to not watch every other lane, just stay in my lane and go for it from the very beginning.

“The emotions are very difficult to describe. It’s unbelievable for a swimmer. I think it’s very rare you get to experience this. I had the chance to be here and to be in form and to perform at my level and simply to do it.

“I opened my eyes. I listened to everything going on around me. That really pushed me to do a good race. I don’t think you can imagine this type of thing.

“It’s very difficult to predict, you don’t know what’s going to happen. It was good not to predict. I gave myself a nice surprise.”

One from one for Leon. He still looked more like a prince.

On Tuesday, with his face plastered over every newspaper and TV report in town, and something called social media, he powered through the heats in the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke.

“I had a lot of people to call yesterday morning,” he said.

“I woke up and went swimming. I swam roughly three kilometres and went home to relax. I need to start feeling my legs again this afternoon. I’ll eat and have a big nap. There will be just one hour between both semi-final races tonight but it’s a good challenge. I’m using all the energy from the stadium in this. I want to swim as fast as possible in every race.”

Still a prince, Leon reached both finals. No one had ever won the 200m butterfly and 200m breasstroke at the same Olympics, let alone on the same night.

At 8.37pm, he won the fly against Hungary’s defending champion and world record-holder Kristof Milak. At 10.31pm, he beat another reigning Olympic champion, Australia’s gallant Zac Stubblety-Cook, in the breaststroke. Back-to-back, stirring renditions of La Marseillaise. Two gold medals in two hours.

“It was insane,” he said. “Crazy to be in the final of both races. The crowd was on fire. It really is insane to live this as a French person. I’m so happy and I’ve accomplished many dreams since I’ve been here. To make this double was something I felt capable of, but to actually make it happen really is something else.”

That’s when the handsome, shy, dapper, much-hyped 22-year-old looked older. More ­authoritative.

Back at Cafe Joyeux, I pointed at their sign and said, “Le Roi! The King!” Immediately everyone started jumping around, spilling their espressos, shaking their fists and doing phantom breaststroke. He is incredibly popular.

He was chasing a fourth gold in the 200m individual medley in the early hours of Saturday morning, Australian time. Win, lose, draw or sink like a stone from exhaustion, he already owns the Olympic swimming meet in Paris. Three individual golds. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a crowd like it. He became Le Roi for real.

“With the crowd, I think there are two options,” he said. “You can stay in your bubble and try to do your own race and ignore what is happening in the stands – but I’m not like that. For me, it’s the other option. It’s an advantage to have the Frenchmen in the stands and be at home. I have wanted to use that enthusiasm.

“The Olympic Games is a dream for a lot of people and I have really wanted to succeed. Leaving a mark on history is a driving force. It has been a dream come true.”

Originally published as France has a new king … and he’s started a revolution