Three lengths into the final of men’s 200m butterfly final, Léon Marchand finally seemed to have finally reached the outer limits of his extraordinary talent. He was racing against the Hungarian world record holder and Olympic champion from Tokyo Kristof Milak, and he was losing. At that, distance swimming races happen slowly, and then all of a sudden. There’s hope all the way until the point when it’s irresistibly obvious that there’s not, and the 17,000 clamouring French fans in La Défense Arena were just beginning to fall quiet as the realisation hit them that Marchand was going to finish second.
Milak had been a couple of feet ahead at 100m, but his lead had grown to the best part of a body-length by the time they reached the final turn.
