In a great day of swimming finals, Léon Marchand, the star of French swimming, won the gold medal and set a new Olympic record in the 400-meter individual medley in Paris 2024.
He broke an Olympic record that had belonged to Michel Phelps since 2008 and was 4:03.84 minutes.
The French merman maintained the world record time (which belongs to him at 4:02.50 minutes) over just over 250 metres, but lost a little of his rhythm in the last part of the competition. However, the best Olympic mark did not escape him and he stopped the clock at 4:02:95 minutes.
He had no rivalry in the Parisian pool, as second place and the silver medal went to Tomoyuki Matsuchita who clocked 4:08.62 and third place to the American Carson Foster who fought the entire time for the silver and had a time of 4:08.66 minutes.
This was the first of four gold medals that Marchand is seeking at these Olympic Games.
For her part, American Torri Huske claimed her second medal in Paris 2024 by winning the women’s 100-meter butterfly in a close final, although she owned the event from start to finish and stopped the clocks at 55:59 seconds.
She was followed by her compatriot Gretchen Walsh in 55:53 and bronze went to China’s Yufei Shang in 56:21.
Huske had already won the silver medal in the women’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay together with the United States, in an event in which Australia took the gold medal.
In the final of the night, Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi surprised everyone to take home the gold medal in the men’s 100-metre breaststroke, which was the most hotly contested final of the night.
He touched the wall in 59:03 seconds, while Adam Peaty of Great Britain did the same in 59:05, tied with American Nic Fink who will share the silver with the European.