After Olympic Dominance, Leon Marchand and Summer McIntosh Secure in Positions as World’s Best

Leon Marchand -- Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

After Olympic Dominance, Leon Marchand and Summer McIntosh Secure in Positions as World’s Best

Hundreds of swimmers competed over the nine days at La Défense Arena, all of whom had poured years of training and focus into ensuring they would be at their best for the Paris Olympics. Fifty-seven departed with at least one piece of individual hardware to commemorate a top-three finish, but all carried a sense of finality. The Olympics had been the target, not a stepping stone to some other competition, and the long buildup was over.

Of course, most will return to training soon enough for further cracks at international competition, but it will be four more years until another event comes around with the prestige of the Olympics. History tells us at least half of the headliners from Paris will have declined precipitously by the time the Games of the 34th Olympiad open in Los Angeles while younger swimmers who were not in contention or not even qualified for this year’s Olympics will be winning medals.

At the Olympics, more than any other meet in the world, results matter. Slow pool, lackluster winning times, fewer world records than expected? Who cares? Show up to perform, and your legacy in the sport is secure forever. Whereas World Championships performances can be scrutinized to project swimmers’ results in future years, the Olympics is the endgame.

Such circumstances breed pressure, and the swimmers who most successfully navigated that pressure deserve credit as the best swimmers of the Olympics and best swimmers in the world. Indeed, no one with even a rudimentary understanding of the sport would deny that Leon Marchand and Summer McIntosh are the clear No. 1 choices for their respective genders right now.

Marchand, 22, captivated France and the world with his four-gold-medal performance, becoming only the third man and fourth swimmer overall to win that many individual events in a single Olympics. He was just short of his own world record in a dominant 400 IM triumph while he became the second-fastest performer ever in his three other races. Marchand then added a fifth medal when his breaststroke split helped France to the country’s first-ever medal in the men’s 400 medley relay.

Summer McIntosh — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Unlike her French counterpart, McIntosh was not perfect individually, coming in just behind Ariarne Titmus in the 400 freestyle before dominating the 400 IM and defeating stellar competition to win the 200 butterfly and 200 IM. McIntosh was unable to add any relay medals as all three Canadian women’s relays that she anchored fell to fourth. Still, she secured her swimmer-of-the-meet status with a win over two other individual gold medalists, Kate Douglass and Kaylee McKeown, in the 200 IM on day eight of competition.

Notably, the argument is not that McIntosh has the top résumé of any female swimmer who competed in Paris. That distinction still belongs to American freestyle great Katie Ledecky while Swedish sprinter Sarah Sjostrom is not far behind, but in the women’s meet this time around, McIntosh’s supremacy could not be questioned, particularly after her dramatic final victory.

Post-Paris, the contenders will be coming for perches atop the sport currently occupied by Marchand and McIntosh… but not yet. Not as most competitors enjoy their vacations and celebrations while only beginning to plot their returns to training. Not with the first opportunity to dethrone the current king and queen of the sport a long way off.

Yes, there will be other meets of significance in the coming months. Select 18-and-under swimmers will continue their quest toward Los Angeles this week as the Junior Pan Pacific Championships get underway in Canberra, Australia. A collection of experienced and fresh talent will gather in Budapest in December for the Short Course World Championships, with further international gold medals on the line. As usual with Short Course Worlds, particularly when held so close after the Olympics, we will not know which Olympic stars will choose to jump back in so soon.

Budapest will surely produce some exceptional performances, but because of the likely-limited participation roster and the 25-meter format, we will not use the meet to judge the best swimmers in the world. No, Marchand and McIntosh will remain in those positions all winter and spring, at the very least until the next global long course competition, with the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore scheduled for July 2025.

That’s the next meet when results will truly be judged for their placements, rather than as a lead-in to something bigger. The top swimmers in Singapore will then become the world’s best for that moment, even if World Championships medals and golds lack the prestige provided in the Olympics. From that moment on, the chase will be on for Los Angeles.

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