Léon Marchand was voted L’Équipe’s male World Champion of Champions—an award given annually by the L’Équipe editorial staff. The award has been separated by gender since 2012; this year marks the inaugural awards for para-athletes, which were won by a pair of swimmers: Brazil’s Gabriel dos Santos Araujo and China’s Jiang Yuyan.
Last week, Marchand was honored as the male French Champion of Champions. This makes him just the third Frenchman to win the French and World crowns in the same year, joining Zinedine Zidane in 1998 and Renaud Lavillenie in 2014.
Men’s Champion of Champions Ranking
- Léon Marchand (FRA), swimming — 1118 points
- Armand Duplantis (SWE), athletics — 778 points
- Tadej Pogačar (SLO), cycling — 759 points
- Teddy Reiner (FRA), judo — 229 points
- Antoine Dupont (FRA), rugby — 223 points
Marchand was the face of the host nation at the Paris Olympics this summer, winning five medals—four of which were golds in Olympic record times. He became the first swimmer since Kornelia Ender in 1976 to win two Olympic golds in the same session, and in the last event of the meet, he swam breaststroke on France’s men’s 4×100 medley relay, helping the team earn bronze in a national record.
These accolades helped him earn 1118 points in L’Équipe’s rankings, securing the title by 340 points. After defending Olympic gold and breaking the men’s pole vault world record multiple times this year, Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis finished second in the voting, just ahead of Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar, who became the third man to complete cycling’s Triple Crown by winning the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and World Championship in the same season.
Two French athletes rounded out the men’s top five, with Teddy Reiner (Judo) and Antoine Dupont (rugby) taking fourth and fifth in voting.
Women’s Champion of Champions Ranking
- Simone Biles (USA), gymnastics — 1100 points
- Summer McIntosh (CAN), swimming — 580 points
- Katie Ledecky (USA), swimming — 552 points
- Sydney McLaughlin (USA), athletics — 257 points
- Yaroslava Machuchikh (UKR), athletics — 222 points
Simone Biles won the women’s World Champion of Champions rankings for the fifth time in her career and second-straight year. The most decorated gymnast in history, she picked up four more medals in Paris, including gold in the all-around, vault, and team events. Biles finished ahead of swimmers Summer McIntosh and Katie Ledecky in voting.
Like Marchand in the men’s rankings, she was the only athlete in her rankings to surpass 1000 points. McIntosh—who has picked up many Canadian Athlete of the Year honors—earned 580 points for her Paris performance, which included three golds (200 butterfly, 200 IM, 400 IM) and one silver (400 freestyle).
Ledecky completed a historic Olympic four-peat in the women’s 800 freestyle. She defended her gold from Tokyo in the women’s 1500 freestyle, and her four medals from Paris cemented her as the most decorated female Olympic swimmer in history and the most decorated American female Olympian. She finished third in the voting with 552 points, 52 points behind the teenaged McIntosh.
Men’s Para-Sport Champion of Champions Ranking
- Gabriel dos Santos Araujo (BRA), para-swimming — 595 points
- Ihar Boki (BLR), para-swimming — 478 points
- Alexandre Léauté (FRA), para-cycling — 429 points
- Guo Jincheng (CHN), para-swimming — 402 points
- Alexis Hanquinquant (FRA), para-triathlon — 385 points
Two para-swimmers topped the rankings in L’Equipe’s first vote for the men’s para-sport World Champion of Champions. Brazil’s Gabriel dos Santos Araujo won the inaugural crown with 595 points, with Ihar Boki taking the runner-up position.
Araujo, 22, won three gold medals at the Paris Paralympics, bringing his Paralympic medal haul to six after winning three (two golds, one silver) in Tokyo at 19 years old. He broke the men’s 150 IM SM2 world record twice in one day, lowering the mark to 3:14.02 and finishing fourth while swimming up a classification in the SM3 category. He defended his Olympic titles from Tokyo, winning the 200 freestyle S2 and the 50 backstroke S2. Araujo swept the sprint backstrokes in S2, picking up the win in the 100 backstroke S2.
Ihar Boki is one of the most successful Paralympic swimmers in the Games’ history. He was approved to race as a Neutral Paralympic Athlete in Paris, marking his fourth Paralympic appearance. He won five medals, taking gold in the 50 freestyle 13, 400 freestyle S13, 100 backstroke S13, 100 butterfly S13, and 200 IM SM13.
Para-swimmer Guo Jincheng finished fourth in the voting after winning six medals—including four gold—at the Paralympics.
Women’s Para-Sport Champion of Champions Ranking
- Jiang Yuyan (CHN), para-swimming — 901 points
- Sarah Storey (GBR), para-cycling — 720 points
- Catherine Debrunner (SUI), para-athletics — 634 points
- Saysunee Jana (THA), para-fencing — 346 points
- Omara Durand (CUB), para-athletics — 221 points
China’s Jiang Yuyan was the most decorated athlete of the Paris Paralympics, and that distinction helped her win the first women’s para-sport World Champion of Champions title. The 20-year-old won set the tone in her first event, capturing the 50 freestyle S6 Paralympic title with a world record.
She also set world records in the 100 freestyle S7 and 100 backstroke S6 and won a whopping seven golds at the competition. She earned individual titles in the 50 freestyle S6, 100 freestyle S7, 400 freestyle S6, 100 backstroke S6, and 50 butterfly S6, along with relay golds in the mixed 4×50 freestyle relay 20 points and mixed 4×50 medley relay 20 points. Her medal haul from Paris brings her career total of Paralympic medals to 11.
Jiang was the only female para-swimmer included in the top five. Behind her, Great Britain’s Sarah Storey took second with 720 points to her 901. Catherine Debrunner rounded out the top three, while Saysunee Jana and Omara Durand finished fourth and fifth in the voting.
Factoids, Michael Phelps never won this award, not even in 2007 (Federer). Katie Ledecky was the female nominee in 2014 and 2017. (And Simone Biles won it 5 times)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89quipe_Champion_of_Champions
That’s quite a large gap in points between Simone and Summer when you consider they had the same medal haul in Paris.
And 2 individual gold medals for Simone Biles against 3 for Summer McIntosh, factually.
to me the gap would be fine, if it was in Summer’s favour. We know how these voting contests go, Biles had a great Olympics, but in no way it was bigger than Summer’s, but she’s a much bigger household name, add her story of sport rebirth after her struggles and it was clear Summer had no chance
And it will last forever like this with the constantly growing “woke” trend claimed by this paper and by its own associated television channel.
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Why is it “woke” to give an award to a much, much more famous athlete with equal medal hauls? Because Simone is black so any recognition she gets is “woke”?
I respect your thinking which tries to explain this abysmal difference in rating between these two immense champions, to understand you it is perhaps the whole of her work which would have tipped the scales so much towards Simone Biles. Do we judge a career or achievements in 2024 only?
“Do we judge a career or achievements in 2024 only?”
Human beings have bias and we saw many times in this kind of awards that in case of equality the most famous person wins and Simone is a much more famous athlete than Summer (especially for non-swimming nerds) and for a very long time.
It is not a race issue, even Caeleb Dressel was second and not first in the edition 2021 in this award and it was Novak Djokovic who won it.
I think ScovaNotiaSwimmer agrees that it’s not a race issue.
I think ScovaNotiaSwimmer is confused about why jpm49 is making it a race issue.
Yes, exactly, thanks Braden. I agree with The Albatross
When we don’t like a “woke” newspaper, we are systemically racist! Why not ?
Technically everything swimming related is a race issue
Okay yeah but that’s a way bigger scope than what’s happening here haha.
There are 6 total medal opportunities in gymnastics, 18 in swimming. Doing a pure 1:1 medal comparison isn’t a great comparison.
White, blonde, tall, with no known or at least publicized problems, Summer McIntosh did not tick any of the boxes of this rather “woke” newspaper which gave her so little importance during the Olympics, like our state television for that matter.
Let’s hope that the formidable swimmer will never grant any interviews to these two media.
We will note, and this is a first, that Léon did not do so for this title with this newspaper.
That’s a super weird take that sort of implicates that Simone Biles was somehow not worthy on the merits of her performance? Either would have been a fine choice. They both won 3 golds and a silver. They both made history in different ways.
I would guess the tie-breaker for a French paper was more along the lines of “Simone’s choreographer is French.”
How can we reach the French sporting public (and the journalists) when we are constantly under-publicized by this very influential newspaper and by the state channels which have never broadcast the images of the women’s 200m medley either live or even recorded? one of the most beautiful women’s races of these Olympics. Léon’s finish will remain engraved in our memories in the 200m butterfly, Summer’s finish will not, and for good reason.
As for the value of Simone Biles, almost nothing to complain about, it is an infinitely athletic rubber gymnastics pushed to the extreme, but we can prefer the gymnastics of another time, that of Svetlana Boginskaya for example, much more poetic.
That’s a big pivot from “Summer didn’t win because she’s white and had blonde hair” to “I think Summer should have won because I prefer swimming to gymnastics.”
If you had witnessed the work carried out, voluntarily or not (but it was successful), to make Summer McIntosh almost invisible in this newspaper and in its associated channel, you would perhaps not have written this. I do not live in a dream, but in a Franco-French reality, alas!
Both of Simone’s coaches are French and she has almost 10 years of global name recognition. It’s not surprising that she is more well-known/popular than Summer, even with medal haul being equal.
And it is the role of journalism to always go in the direction of the “vox populi” of its readership, which sometimes has some attractions we recognize, here to sell your newspaper more easily, why not?
But your argument is that it is somehow “woke” that Simone got it over Summer. Why? You haven’t articulated why Summer deserves it over Simone besides some strange racist comments.
Please note, I am only here in a Franco-French treatment of an episode of the 2024 Olympics where a newspaper and state channels forgot to adequately highlight the exploits of a young swimmer who did not seem to correspond to one of their criteria rather biased, a kind of reverse racism : the “woke”.
You didn’t explain anything, you just repeated your really bad argument.
EXPLICATION “How can we reach the French sporting public (and the journalists) when Summer McIntosh was constantly under-publicized by this very influential newspaper and by the state channels which have never broadcast the images of the women’s 200m medley either live or even recorded? one of the most beautiful women’s races of these Olympics. Léon’s finish will remain engraved in our memories in the 200m butterfly, Summer’s finish will not, and for good reason.”
Dude Simone Biles is a significantly higher profile person than Summer. Plus her storyline, which gets amplified by the American bias that exists in really all western media making their top athletes global household names. She also was on the team competition when Canada doesn’t have really strong relays, which also helps with her narrative more. Salty much?
Not really the point of the article, but shouldn’t Larysa Latynina still be the most decorated gymnast in history ahead of Biles, since she is still the most decorated female Olympian in any sport?
Latynina has more Olympic medals, but Biles is more decorated in basically every other way.
The gymnastics community as a whole agrees that Biles is the most-decorated ever.
World Championships were held each 4 years back then, compared to now where you have them pretty much every year in gymnastics.
So of course it’s easier for gymnasts nowadays to earn more medals at Worlds.
But of course US media already gave the GOAT Title to their favorite after winning 5 medals in Rio, because according to them 5 is better than Latynina’s 18 medals. 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
If you follow NBC Sports on Twitter, whenever they publish a stat on Biles they add world and Olympic medals combined to make it sound like she is more decorated. They will do everything but admit that someone from the eastern block had/has a better athlete than them.
Yeah but the gymnastics community unanimously agrees that Biles is the GOAT.
Trust me, I was neck deep in a Twitter war about this one time.
20-year member of the gymternet here, and you are correct. “Most decorated” in the gymnastics community has always meant Worlds + Olympics.
Just like with swimming adding events to major meets, gymnastics events and major meets have changed over time, making historical comparisons tricky. Regardless, Biles is most definitely the GOAT.
That makes sense. I was just wondering if this was a case of recency bias or if gymnastics community considers some other factors.
I think that basically what they’ve decided is that Biles’ is competing against a deeper field (which is true of almost every sport since the 1950s) and that the sport has become decidedly more complex and physical than it was during Latynina’s career.
Even Latynina seems to agree that modern gymnasts are on another level: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/tokyo-olympics/tokyo-olympics-2020-im-a-little-afraid-says-larisa-latynina-after-simone-biles-exit/articleshow/84915260.cms
Then there’s some added stuff about how Biles changed the sport – competing longer than was thought possible at this level, creating new skills.
This all comes with the usual pitfalls of comparing sports across generations. The general sense is that the split in gymnastics was ushered in with Olga Korbut in 1972. That’s kind of when the… Read more »
I’m surprised that you’re surprised by MLR! The Soviet boycott in 84 meant that most of the best gymnasts in the world were missing. MLR probably would have come about 7th or 8th if it was a fully attended Games.