He's so good, he sounds like a line in the French national anthem. Léon Marchand collected the swimming title he's been born to win. And it got very tense in the archery on the Esplanade des Invalides.
Another day, another poster boy
Le rugbyman Antoine Dupont strutted his stuff on Day 1 at the Stade de France and inspired the rugby sevens team to the gold medal following a 28-7 victory over Fiji. And so cue Léon Marchand who blitzed his way to the 4x100 metres individual medley. The 22-year-old Frenchman won his swimming race in 4 mins 02.95 seconds. His Olympic record time was nearly six seconds ahead of Tomoyuki Matsushita from Japan who claimed silver. And there's maybe more. Marchand is set to swim in the 200m butterfly, the 200m breast stroke and the 200m individual medley. If Marchand does pull off the feat of winning gold in more than one event, it will be the first time a French swimmer has won multiple individual Olympic golds. We might be hearing a lot more of the national anthem then.
But is this fair?
Léon Marchand enters the pool with genetic heft. His mother, Céline Bonnet, appeared at the 1992 Olympics and his father, Xavier Marchand, reached the final at the Olympics in 1996 and 2000. They were both good at the individual medley.
Fighting times
Defending champions Canada maintained their slender hopes of reaching the last eight of the women's football competition with a 2-1 win over France in Saint-Etienne. Canada have 0 points following their second victory in Group A. World football's governing body docked Canada six points just before the official opening ceremony after two members of the coaching staff were exposed for their part in flying a drone over one of New Zealand's training sessions. It will be one in the eye for Fifa should Canada retain their title. But the whole tale puts a new twist on the old football phrase "Good in the air".
So early into the Olympics and we've managed to get in the obscure musical reference. But why not? The sun has affected our head after watching the women's team archery at the Esplanade des Invalides. What a wonderful backdrop the Hotel des Invalides provided with the range of cannons glowering at the archers. The review is quite surprised one of the arrows was not directed at the master of ceremonies. "The stage is set for the most epic of showdowns ...the Olympic gold medal match," uttered he of the dread intent. To be fair - since the review is this among many things - it was nerve-racking stuff. South Korea let slip a two-set lead and eventually beat China in a three- shot "shoot-off". Kudos to the South Koreans.
Pressure?
South Korea have effectively annexed the women's team event in the archery. They won the fiirst one in 1988 in Seoul. But they nearly lost the sranglehold in Paris. However, the trio claimed the shoot-off with 10, 9 and a 10 while the Chinese could muster only 8, 10 and 9. "We're always concentrating on training," said South Korea's Jeon Hunyoung. "And we try to embrace the challenge." You don't say.
