Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Wednesday September 11, 2024 at 1:57 p.m.
Although he did not want to parade bare-chested at the foot of the Eiffel Tower with his relay teammates after their medal at the Paris Olympic Games, Léon Marchand was convinced by Florent Manaudou.
If this magical Parisian summer ended last Sunday with the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games, the images continue to bring to life this exceptional sequence between the Olympic Games and the Paralympics. That of Léon Marchand, the new king of world swimming, parading bare-chested with his teammates at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, gold medal around his neck and wearing dark glasses, remains one of the most striking of the Paris Olympic Games. A somewhat surprising image at first glance, as the Toulousain is usually rather reserved, even shy, as he readily admits.
“I don’t do that!”
Has he already changed, after winning four individual titles at the Paris La Défense Arena, in the 200m breaststroke, 200m butterfly, 200m medley and 400m medley as well as a bronze medal in the 4x100m medley relay? In reality, if he paraded like that, it was because he was pushed to do so… Or rather because he was convinced by a certain Florent Manaudou, his relay teammate, as we saw Tuesday evening on France 2, during the broadcast of the last two episodes of the documentary series “Au cœur des Jeux”. “I don’t do that!”, Marchand said at first, refusing to parade bare-chested.
And so it was Manaudou who would end up convincing him, with an unstoppable argument. “You’ve put on some muscle these last two years, you have to show it,” his elder, a regular on podiums of all kinds, told him. Marchand would end up complying, and even having fun with it, even jokingly telling his teammates to “contract” their muscles, before being the first to enter the Parc des Champions stage, in front of 13,000 delirious people.
