2024 Swammy Awards: European Male Swimmer Of The Year — Leon Marchand

See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards here.

The male European swimmers dominated the Paris Olympics. Through four days of competition, they had won gold in every individual event, and the only event they hadn’t won was the 4×100 freestyle relay on the opening day of the competition.

But Leon Marchand rose above the rest of his competition for this Swammy, putting on an incredible show over eight days as he won four individual Olympic golds in front of his home crowd.

Since he broke Michael Phelps’ 400 IM world record at the 2023 World Championships, Marchand had been heralded as the face of the Games for the host nation France. It was a unique pressure for Marchand ahead of his second Olympics and a dramatic increase in attention since Marchand broke out internationally in 2022.

The 22-year-old answered the pressure in style. His first event of the Games was the 400 IM on the second day, where he made the first Olympic medal of his career gold, touching the wall in 4:02.95 to take down Phelps’ Olympic record from 2008. The cheers for Marchand extended beyond the arena; across Paris at the table tennis venue, the crowd burst into a chant for Marchand as well.

It was the first of many medals for Marchand. On the fifth day of the Games, he completed his dirty double and won gold in the 200 butterfly and 200 breaststroke, both in Olympic record time. In the 200 fly, Marchand staged a comeback in the final 50 meters, getting over the top of world record holder and defending Olympic champion Kristof Milak. He clocked 1:51.21, becoming the second-fastest swimmer in history.

A little over an hour later, he was back up in the 200 breaststroke, a race he commanded from start to finish. His 2:05.85 was a European record in addition to an Olympic record, and the swim made him the first swimmer to win two golds in the same session since Kornelia Ender in 1976. Marchand completed his individual events with the 200 IM, where he stormed to the win in 1:54.06 for his fourth Olympic record of the meet. He was just six-hundredths off Ryan Lochte’s world record.

The crowd’s cheers for Marchand had grown louder with each race as Marchand Madness took hold of the city—fans were even inserting his name into “La Marseillaise” each time the anthem played for Marchand. Fans got a final chance to cheer for Marchand and the French swimmers on the final day when Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Marchand, Maxime Grousset, and Florent Manaudou earned bronze in the men’s 4×100 medley relay with a national record of 3:28.38.

There were heavy expectations on Marchand coming into the Games, but he delivered, turning in an Olympic performance for the history books and electrifying the streets of Paris.

Honorable Mentions:

• Daniel Wiffen, Ireland: Mona McSharry got the ball rolling for Ireland on the third day of the meet, winning Ireland’s first medal since 1996 with bronze in the women’s 100 breaststroke. Daniel Wiffen kept Ireland’s momentum going the very next day, striking gold in the men’s 800 freestyle. Wiffen held off a charging Bobby Finke and touched in 7:38.19, setting European and Olympic records with the fifth-fastest swim in history. The swim made him the first Irishman to medal in the pool and the country’s first gold medallist since 1996. He climbed onto the podium again in the 1500 freestyle, swimming 14:39.63 for bronze. Earlier in the year, Wiffen won double gold in the 800/1500 freestyle at the 2024 World Championships.
• Kristof Milak, Hungary: There was all the pressure in the world on Marchand before the Games began, but few knew what to expect from Milak. The Hungarian Olympic champion and world record holder had a bumpy lead-up to the Olympics, and it was difficult to tell what form he would bring to Paris. Milak couldn’t halt the momentum Marchand built for himself, he took silver in his signature event, the 200 butterfly, clocking a 1:51.75. It was surely disappointing not to stand at the top of the Olympic podium again, but Milak rebounded. The men’s 100 butterfly was a stacked final, and he delivered, charging from fourth at the turn to touch first in 49.90, getting under 50 seconds for the second time in his career. It’s the second Olympic gold of Milak’s career and a step up on the podium for him after he earned silver in Tokyo.
• David Popovici, Romania: David Popovici was on top of the swimming world in 2022 but had a difficult year on the international scene in 2023, missing the medals in his signature events, the 100 and 200 freestyle, where he’d broken the world record (100 free) and world junior record (200 free) the year before. Popovici was still a teenager when he arrived in Paris for his second Olympics and was dealing with his version of the expectations and uncertainty that swirled around both Marchand and Milak. Popovici rose to the challenge presented by the loaded 100 and 200 freestyle fields. The 200 freestyle was up first, and he prevailed in one of the tightest races of the Games, making his first Olympic medal a gold in 1:44.72, beating Matt Richards by two-hundredths. He made it back onto the podium in the 100 freestyle as well. While Pan Zhanle sped away for gold, second through fourth were separated by two-hundredths. Again, Popovici got his hand on the wall for a medal, claiming bronze in 47.49.

Special Acknowledgment: Great Britain, Men’s 4×200 Freestyle Relay Team

These Swammys are about individual performances, but it felt wrong not to acknowledge Great Britain’s 4×200 freestyle relay quartet. James Guy, Tom Dean, Matt Richards, and Duncan Scott won gold in the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay, defending their gold from the Tokyo Games, which was Great Britain’s first in the event since 1908. We’ve seen countries go back-to-back in a relay at the Olympics, but this marked the first time a nation defended its relay gold with the same four swimmers.

Past Winners

• 2023 Swammy — Leon Marchand, France
• 2022 Swammy – David Popovici, Romania
• 2021 Swammy – Evgeny Rylov, Russia
• 2020 Swammy – Ilya Shymanovich, Belarus
• 2019 Swammy – Adam Peaty, Great Britain
• 2018 Swammy – Kliment Kolesnikov, Russia
• 2017 Swammy – Adam Peaty, Great Britain
• 2016 Swammy – Adam Peaty, Great Britain
• 2015 Swammy – Gregorio Paltrinieri, Italy
• 2014 Swammy – Florent Manaudou, France
• 2013 Swammy – Vladimir Morozov, Russia