Where Does Leon Marchand’s Paris Olympic Performance Rank Among All-Time Greats

As the dust settles from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, it’s time to begin applying context to what we saw, and specifically where it fits into the pantheon of all-time great performances at the Olympic Games.

I always find it interesting to try and make an “all-time list” in the aftermath of big moments like these, and then to see how the mood or memory mellows as time goes on and recency bias fades (though I think in swimming that sometimes nostalgia bias is just as strong as recency bias).

The star of the Games was Frenchman Leon Marchand, who at 22 punched his way into lists like the “top 10 greatest male swimmers of all-time” with at least one more Olympics left to go in the prime of his career.

But where does it fit all-time among the greatest single-Olympic swimming performances ever?

The things I thought about, in varying weights, included some of the obvious: the number of gold medals, number of total medals, number of individual medals, and number of World Records set.

The more subjective criteria I applied included “rising to the moment” with criteria like whether an athlete met expectations, how much pressure they had on them, who they beat, and how unprecedented their achievements were.

With all due respect to the singular performances like Adam Peaty and Pan Zhanle, I really didn’t consider one-hit-wonders for this list. It would take a really wild set of relay performances, I think, to overcome winning just one individual gold medal to be in the top 10, for me.

I think the reasonable “modern era” for a list like this is probably beginning in 1968 in Mexico City. That’s when the Olympic schedule expanded significantly and became a lot more stable, and when it feels like the world of swimming really started to become globally deeper.

Here is my top 5 list and where Leon fits into it, plus a few other performances I considered.

Top 5 All-Time Single Olympic Performances in Swimming, Men

Note: I limited this to one-per-athlete. If I were not, I think Phelps’ 2004 performance probably ranks 3rd, and his 2016 performance probably ranks 6th or 7th.

1. Michael Phelps, 8-for-8, 2008 Olympic Games

Positives: 8 gold medals, 11 World Records, 5 individual gold medals, the Lezak relay, the out-touch of Milorad Cavic in the 100 fly, Living up to the hype, really good relay performances

Cons: Supersuits

The undisputed #1. It’s hard to imagine any future performance topping this one, just given the context of where swimming is moving and how the schedule is mapped out.

2. Mark Spitz, 7-for-7, 1972 Olympic Games

Positives: 7 gold medals, 4 individual gold medals, World Records in every swim (individual or relay)

Cons: No individual country was even close to deep enough to challenge the US relays, so those relays have a low WAR (wins-against-replacement) score.

Spitz pulled his 7-for-7 off under the shroud of a lot of political context of the Olympic Games returning to Germany for the first time since the atrocities of World War 2 and the kidnapping of Jewish athletes (Spitz, who is Jewish, was done competing by then and was escorted out of the country).

I think those first two are pretty clear-cut. Here’s where I expect things to get contentious.

3. Leon Marchand, the Salut to Paris, 2024 Olympic Games

Positives: 4 gold medals, all individual, + 1 relay bronze, stood tall and played the hero well in front of a wild home crowd, the 200 fly/200 breast double, four-for-four Olympic Records

Cons: No World Records, only one relay medal, missed best times in a few events, main rivals underperformed (or didn’t exist), schedule change to accommodate his double.

Marchand stood big against the biggest backdrop and the pressure of a home crowd. Winning the 200 breast and 200 fly in the same session was wildly-impressive, though the schedule change to make them almost two hours apart muted that. He definitely made his teammates better on that final medley relay after some of them didn’t swim great in the rest of the meet.

But his main rivals, like Qin Haiyang and Kristof Milak faltered at the meet, none of the world’s other great IMers rose to the challenge, and he didn’t set any World Records. Whether that was his fault or the pool’s fault is up for debate, but history will remember the fact that he missed best times in his best event, the 400 IM.

4. Matt Biondi Had Seoul, 1988 Olympic Games

Positives: Five gold medals, Four World Records, was an irreplaceable leg in the American 800 free relay, beat really good competitors like Tom Jager, sixth medal, individual bronze in the 200 free, showed off ranginess.

Cons: Seoul was not a big rizz Olympics, the 50/100 free double was repeated by Alexander Popov in 1992 and 1996. Out-touched for gold in the 100 fly which would have really put this performance over the top.

American Matt Biondi came away with five gold medals, thanks in part to the Olympic debut of the 50 free. I don’t think history really appreciates just how good Biondi was at those Olympics yet.

5. Caeleb Dressel, 5 Golds in Tokyo

Positives: Five gold medals, three of which were individual, World Records in the 100 fly and 400 medley relays, swam the key leg on that 400 medley relay to hold off Great Britain, fought back big competition from Kyle Chalmers and Kristof Milak.

Cons: Couldn’t take out either of the legendary sprint free World Records, the debacle that was the mixed medley relay (which wasn’t his fault, but he swam on the relay so 🤷).

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were tough for everyone, I think, but we learned a year later just how much Caeleb Dressel was hurting emotionally at those games. Still, he put up a legendary performance, winning all three of his individual events and the two relays he swam that were on the schedule historically.

Other Performances I weighed

• Don Schollander, 1964 (USA) – I know this one is a bit outside of the ‘modern era’ we described above, four gold medals in 10 events is a gigantic performance – and he didn’t even swim the 400 medley relay (in spite of winning the 100 free gold medal). In a modern-era schedule, he’s probably winning six gold medals.
• John Naber, 1976 (USA) – In his first, and only, Olympic Games, Naber hit big winning four gold medals in 1976, including sweeping the 100 and 200 backstrokes individually. He picked up the relay torch from Roland Matthes, who was at the tail end of his career at that point at the ripe old age of *25* and got bronze in the 100 back after sweeping the backstrokes at the prior two Olympics.
• Alexander Popov, 1996 (Russia) – the individual 50/100 free wins over Gary Hall Jr., but only two gold medals total to go with two relay silvers.
• Ian Thorpe, 2000 (Australia) – While he won more gold medals in 2000 thanks to relays, I thought his 2004 sweep of the 200/400 free was more impressive, although Australia didn’t have the horses to back him up. Also took a bronze in the 100 free.
• Michael Gross, 1984 (West Germany) – There’s always a ‘yeah but’ when it comes to medals from 1980 and 1984 thanks to the battling boycotts, but Gross’ World Records in the 200 free and 100 fly both stood up globally. Just .04 seconds separated the American and West German 800 free relays.

I’m sure I missed some obvious choices. Who would you add to this list, and how would you rank them?