The phenomenon Léon Marchand finished Wednesday with a double gold, and triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand won gold. The day ended with eight medals for the French delegation. For her part, American middle-distance legend Katie Ledecky won an eighth Olympic gold medal, becoming the second most decorated woman in the history of the Olympic Games.
Published on: 07/31/2024 – 05:09Modified on: 08/01/2024 – 02:34
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Léon Marchand made history by becoming the first swimmer in over a century to win two individual men’s gold medals in the same evening in the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke on Wednesday, July 31 at the Paris Olympic Games. These victories bring the number of gold medals for the French delegation to 8, which now totals 26.
Indeed, France pocketed six other medals on Wednesday thanks to the Olympic title of Cassandre Beaugrand and the bronze of Léo Bergère in triathlon, whose events were able to take place after “compliant” analyses of the Seine, in addition to the bronze of Anthony Jeanjean in BMX Freestyle, Maxime-Gaël Ngayap Hambou in judo and the Blues in the team sabre. Between Marchand’s two exploits, Anastasiia Kirpichnikova won silver in the 1500 m freestyle.
Historic day in the pools
Léon Marchand achieved the historic double (200m butterfly-200m breaststroke) in less than two hours at the La Défense swimming pool, to enter fully into the Olympic and French sporting legend, at the age of 22.
Also read: 2024 Olympics – Swimming: Marchand stronger than Phelps with two gold medals in the same evening
Before Léon Marchand, only East German Kornelia Ender had won two individual titles on the same day, at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. In the men’s category, this had not happened for over a century.
Already crowned in the 400m medley, he now has three gold medals, while waiting for the 200m medley (qualifying on Thursday, final on Friday), where he will be the big favourite, and the 4 x 100m medley relay.
On the same historic night, American Katie Ledecky became the second most decorated woman in Olympic history with her victory in the 1,500m, ahead of Anastasiia Kirpichnikova, who was naturalized last year after wearing the colors of Russia. Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström, 30, won the 100m freestyle, eight years after her first Olympic title in the 100m butterfly.
Also read: 2024 Olympics – swimming: American Katie Ledecky, title hunter in search of an incredible record
In the men’s 100m freestyle, the Chinese Pan Zhanle won the event, smashing his own world record in the main event in 46.40 seconds, ahead of the Australian Kyle Chalmers and the Romanian David Popovici.
First gold medal in French triathlon
Participants in the women’s triathlon at the Paris Olympics dive into the Seine, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. © Jeff Pachoud, AFP
This was the soap opera of this first week in Paris: would the Seine be able to host the swimming part of the triathlons, after the postponement of the men’s event on Tuesday?
The latest water analyses having been deemed “compliant” according to the organizers, Cassandre Beaugrand took advantage of this to win the first gold medal in the French triathlon. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
Also read: 2024 Olympics – triathlon: how France became so strong
In this event which combines 1,500 m of open water swimming, 40 km of cycling and 10 km of running, she made the difference in the last part of the running race.
Bronze in BMX freestyle, judo and fencing
Anthony Jeanjean, world number 1 in BMX freestyle, advanced confidently. In the prestigious setting of the Concorde, he finished in bronze. His young compatriot Laury Pérez, 20 years old, finished 9th and last in the women’s final.
Also see: 2024 Olympics: Jeanjean wins bronze in BMX freestyle
A new surprise guest came to brighten up the day of French judo, while its main chance of a medal, Marie-Eve Gahié, had failed in the match for bronze. Like Joan-Benjamin Gaba on Monday, Maxime-Gaël Ngayap Hambou surprised everyone to win an unexpected bronze medal at 23 years old for his first Games. In the -90 kg category, “MG” dominated the Brazilian Rafael Macedo and offered a seventh medal to French judo.
The fencers brought a sixth medal to the quota: the sabreurs (the Patrice brothers, Boladé Apithy and Maxime Pianfetti) took bronze in the team event, the first medal in this weapon since 2008.
Table tennis player Félix Lebrun is a medal contender
Félix Lebrun beat Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. © Wang Zhao, AFP
The Lebrun brothers have been setting the stands of the Arena Paris Sud alight since the start of the Games, but in the singles quarter-finals, there will only be Félix. The younger brother (17 years old) gave himself a scare against the veteran Dimitrij Ovtcharov, twice his age. Leading 3 sets to 0, he was caught 3-3 by the former world No. 1 before snatching victory in the seventh set. His older brother Alexis, beaten 4-1, was unable to overturn the hierarchy against the Brazilian Hugo Calderano (world No. 6).
Also read: 2024 Olympics – table tennis: Lebrun madness is underway at the Paris Games
Nadal and Alcaraz eliminated
The pair formed by Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, who had tennis fans salivating, were eliminated from the Olympic tournament in the quarter-finals by the American duo Rajeev Ram-Austin Krajicek (6-2, 6-4), ending Nadal’s dream of a medal in Paris.
The Games are therefore over for Rafael Nadal, 38, who was knocked out by Novak Djokovic in the second round of singles and who had then assured that he would think about what to do next with his career “after the Olympics”.
The Blues of handball on probation
Swept away by Denmark (37-29) then Norway (27-22), the Blues of handball avoided the pitfall of a third defeat in a row, managing to snatch a draw at the last second against Egypt (26-26). The Blues can still believe in qualifying for the quarter-finals.
With AFP
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