Olympic swimmer inspires French unity – but for how long?

Renowned swimmer Léon Marchand appears to have inspired the French ideal of “brotherhood”, something that may have been in short supply in the host nation during recent times of deep political division.

He was again cheered on by a home crowd in the 4 x 100m medley relay on Sunday, where he and his teammates took bronze after briefly leading the race.

The 22-year-old has won four gold medals at the Olympics – more than any other French athlete at a single Games – and has been compared to American legend Michael Phelps.

A more outlandish idea was floated by political cartoonists and social media users, who joked that Marchand should be chosen as prime minister after last month’s bitterly contested snap election, in which the left-wing coalition ultimately prevailed over the far right.

Andrew Hussey, a historian of French culture, explained that the jokes showed that France was “celebrating someone who seemed so dedicated and sincere to his sport and lifestyle,” adding that many saw Marchand as a contrast to the country’s politicians.

Parisians lounging on the grass in one of the city’s parks, watching the action on big screens, said the athlete’s heroics provided a welcome distraction during the crisis.

“We don’t want to think about the problems,” said a woman named Thanh. “We don’t want to think about the division in the country.” The swimmers helped “calm things down.”

Louis agrees: “When Marchand was racing, it was the most important thing for the country in a while.”

Politics appears to be on hold during the Olympics, after President Emmanuel Macron said talks on forming a new government would have to wait until after the Paralympics.

Mr Macron was among those who came to Marchand to cheer him on in person. On Friday night, the arena was filled with deafening cheers of “allez” (“go”) each time the golden boy’s swimming cap broke the water as he sailed to glory in the 200m medley.

But anyone really hoping Marchand would rise above the political fringes is likely to be disappointed.

The swimmer, who trains in the United States, has avoided engaging in public debate. That contrasts with another national hero, soccer star Kylian Mbappé, who memorable used a Euro 2024 press conference to call for a vote against the far right.

According to Philip Barker, editor of the Olympic History Journal, the tradition of national unity around a hero is as old as the Olympics themselves.

Barker said some of the host nation’s sporting heroes had made lasting change.

He cited Cathy Freeman, an Aboriginal runner who celebrated her 400m sprint victory at Syndey in 2000 with the Australian and Aboriginal flags, as a reminder of the Australian spirit of inclusion towards the indigenous community “that had never existed before”.

At the 2012 Olympics in London, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah were hailed after winning a series of gold medals in what was quickly dubbed “Super Saturday”.

But Barker said the UK’s “golden age” of unity was short-lived, pointing to the political divisions that characterised the Scottish independence referendum and Brexit in the years that followed.

One expert on contemporary French politics agrees that the unifying effect of Marchand and other French medal winners is unlikely to last long.

“We can see the return of a divided political arena and a disaffected electorate immediately after the Olympics,” said Emile Chabal, professor of contemporary history at the University of Edinburgh.

“There is none of Marchand’s mania – and we have seen this before with great French sports stars like [Zinedine] Zidane or Mbappé – would stop that,” he said.

But over the past week, Marchand’s countrymen have been glued to his exploits — so much so that even those who shelled out big bucks for Olympic tickets have spent some of those events watching his races on their phones.

The same was true for a Parisian present at the fan zone, Audrey, who admitted that she had to look away from a volleyball match to watch Marchand win one of her gold medals on screen.

While France has found a new hero, it is likely that “next week there will be another Marchand,” Audrey pointed out. And anyway, Marchand is just part of something bigger.

“It wasn’t just him,” she said, referring to the “fantastic” opening ceremony.

She said France should be “very proud of what we are showing the world” through the Olympics.