As the unstoppable Léon Marchand swam to his fourth individual gold medal in six days, the 59-year-old American coach behind the face of the Paris Olympics was moved to tears on the pool deck. The 22-year-old from Toulouse had just swept the gold medals in all four events he entered, winning the 400m individual medley, then the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke on the same night, and the 200m medley on Friday, clocking Olympic-record times in each.
One night after another, Marchand transformed the converted rugby arena in the western Paris suburbs into a white-hot cauldron of sound, holding a country of 68m souls in his thrall.
