French Olympian Léon Marchand can't stay out of the pool during Olympic campaign

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Léon Marchand couldn't stay out of the pool on Wednesday, in between or even after intense Olympic competition. 

Marchand was seen swimming in front of fans on Thursday morning in Paris, just hours after winning two gold medals, according to The Associated Press. 

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The 22-year-old Olympic debutant has become one of the biggest stories at the Paris Games already, having claimed three gold medals in the 400-meter individual medley, 200-meter breaststroke and 200-meter butterfly. 

He'll be going for his fourth on Friday when he competes in the 200-meter individual medley. 

Leon Marchand of Team France competes in the Men’s 400m Individual Medley Final on day two of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Paris La Defense Arena on July 28, 2024, in Nanterre, France.  (Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

And even in between his gold performances in the breaststroke and butterfly on Wednesday, Marchand still found his way to a pool, according to BBC commentator and four-time Olympic medalist, with two gold, Rebecca Adlington, via Olympics.com.

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"He'll go straight to the warm-down pool," Harrington said of what Marchand would do between the two events. "He'll take his race suit off, because they are so tight, to get the blood flowing again, because it is almost like a compression suit. He'll go for a swim down, maybe about 1,000m to 1500m, depending on how he is feeling, just flush out that lactic acid."

Marchand's meteoric rise in Paris has caught the attention of American swimming legend Michael Phelps.  

Marchand recorded a 4:02:95 in the men’s 400-meter individual medley to win France’s first Olympic swimming gold since 2012, breaking Phelps’s Olympic record of 4:03:84 that Phelps set in the 2008 Beijing Games.

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Leon Marchand of Team France celebrates after winning gold in the Men's 200m Butterfly Final on day five of the Paris Olympics. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

"For me, nobody believed that I was able to do the things that I was trying to do, right? But I did, deep down inside, and same thing for [Marchand]," Phelps said on Tuesday of Marchand on the Pat McAfee Show. "A lot of people said my records were never gonna be broken and untouched, but clearly it’s not that. And for me, I love it. I love being able to see a young man have a dream, go out there, put in the work and put together the pieces that give him a chance to do this. . . . He and I have so many similarities."

Phelps was also seen putting on a visceral reaction to Marchand's performance in the 200-meter butterfly in an NBC broadcast on Wednesday. 

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