“I knew him when he was a baby and now he’s a multiple Olympic champion, it’s incredible,” says a smiling Michel Coloma, shaking his head in disbelief. Coloma is taking The Athletic on a tour of the Alfred-Nakache swimming pool site in Toulouse — situated next to city’s football stadium. This is where a young Leon Marchand first swam.
Now he has become the standout performer at his home Olympic Games. Advertisement Marchand is the name on everyone’s lips here, the French sensation in the blue swimming hat who has lit up Paris. “Everyone has been watching in the bars and restaurants.
.. when Leon swims, they stop eating and drinking and watch it unfold with their mouths open,” Coloma adds.
“For Toulouse, it’s so important what he’s done. He’s become a big star.” For Coloma, the director general of the century-old Dauphins du TOEC (Toulouse Olympique Employes Club), it’s a pinch-yourself moment.
“One year ago, a journalist said to me, ‘Maybe Leon will be the star in Paris’. I said, ‘Of the swimming?’. And they said, ‘Yeah?’.
And I said, ‘No, of the whole Olympic Games’. “Everyone is talking about Leon here. When he was preparing for the Olympic Games, he came here (to) practise and when he swam, another swimmer didn’t finish his training.
They came out of the pool and stood on the side, watched and said, ‘It’s just incredible’. He was mesmerised. “I feel like for the club it hasn’t yet sunk in what Leon has achieved a.