World record holder Leon Marchand won gold in the 400m individual medley, while Adam Peaty was upset in the 100m breaststroke final.
Leon Marchand achieved France’s first Olympic gold in swimming since 2012, destroying the field to record the second fastest 400m individual medley time ever.
The 22-year-old led strongly on Sunday and never looked back, scoring in 4 minutes 02.95 seconds, almost six seconds ahead of Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita in second, with American Carson Foster in third.
Marchand was the heavy favorite after demolishing Michael Phelps’ 15-year-old world record in a phenomenal swim of 4:02.50 last year.
His performance at the noisy La Defense Arena in Paris was a new Olympic record.
With defending American champion Chase Kalisz failing to reach the final and with the capacity crowd cheering him on, Marchand was a half-length away after the first butterfly stage.
But it was a sensational 100m backstroke that left rivals behind.
Coached by Phelps’ old coach Bob Bowman, Marchand cruised to a victory that made him France’s first gold medalist in the group since the London Games, when they won four.
At the 2021 Olympics, France took home just one swimming medal, Florent Manaudou’s silver in the 50m freestyle.
Marchand, a five-time world champion, will also swim the 200m medley and 200m butterfly as he builds on his growing reputation.
No three-peat
Italian Nicolo Martinenghi won gold in the men’s 100m breaststroke at the Paris Olympics and denied Adam Peaty a third consecutive “three-peat” victory.
Peaty, bidding to become the second male swimmer after retired US great Phelps, to win the same title at three consecutive Games, took silver along with Nic Fink of the US.
His time of 59.05 was just 0.02 seconds slower than Martinenghi’s.
Team USA 1-2 in Women’s 100m Fly
Torri Huske surprised American teammate and world record holder Gretchen Walsh by winning the women’s 100m butterfly gold medal on Sunday.
Walsh turned first, but Huske came back strong to touch in 55.59 seconds, with Walsh second in 55.63 and China’s Zhang Yufei taking bronze (56.21).
Huske’s victory continued a run of the event that has never had a repeat winner since it was first held in 1956. Defending Canadian champion Maggie Mac Neil finished fifth.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
