NANTERRE, France -- Turns out, those comparisons to Michael Phelps weren't farfetched at all when to comes to Léon Marchand.
They certainly weren't a burden for the 22-year-old Frenchman.
Marchand completed one of the most audacious doubles in swimming history Wednesday night, winning the 200-meter butterfly and the 200 breaststroke about two hours apart at the Paris Games.
Two grueling races. Two very different strokes. Two Olympic records. Two gold medals.
Take that, Phelps, who did several doubles of his own while claiming a record eight golds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"I'm a really shy person," Marchand said. "I was kind of the center of attention during those two races. I was trying to get the energy from the whole crowd. They're amazing to me, pushing me in every final."
Thrilling the French fans and claiming the spotlight even on a night when Katie Ledecky romped to another gold medal , Marchand claimed his second and third victories and stamped himself -- with the Olympics not even a week old -- as one of the faces of these Games.
After rallying to beat world-record holder and defending Olympic champion Kristóf Milák in the 200 fly with a finishing kick for the ages, Marchand made it look easy in the 200 breast.
He led all the way, touching in 2 minutes, 5.85 seconds as more than 15,000 fans -- many of them holding up cardboard cutouts of his smiling face -- nearly blew the roof off La Defense Arena.
"Léon! Léon! Léon!" they screamed, a chant that was sure to carry on through the night in Paris.
Trailing most of the way in the 200 fly, Marchand surged past Hungary's Milák on the final lap to finish with an Olympic record of 1:51.71, winning by four-hundredths of a second.
Marchand's final lap was nearly 0.66 faster than anyone else in the field -- and 1.26 clear of Milák.
"I've been watching so many races from him," Marchand said. "I know he has a lot of speed, way more than me, so I was just trying to get as close as possible, and then just push it until the end."
The bronze went to Canada's Ilya Kharun.
Following up his dominating victory in the 400 individual medley Sunday, Marchand held up one finger after spotting the "1" beside his name on the scoreboard. He shook his head just a bit, as if he couldn't quite believe what he had done.
Then, he hustled off the deck to another rousing cheer to begin his warm-down, though those preparations were interrupted by a mandatory return for the victory ceremony.
After a boisterous rendition of "La Marseillaise," the other two medalists walked slowly around the pool, getting their pictures made.
Not Marchand. He hustled back to the practice pool. There was another race to go.
A short while later, Marchand got back to work, blowing away the field in the 200 breast.
Australia's Zac Stubblety-Cook settled for the silver this time, nearly a second behind in 2:06.79. Claiming the bronze was Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands.
"The most exciting part of that whole race and watching him soak it all up and have his moment," Stubblety-Cook said. "I think it's awesome. It's great for the sport of swimming and it's great to see the better half of 15,000 people chanting one person's name and watching swimming live."
Marchand climbed out of the pool and stared at the scoreboard. He tussled his mop of curly hair a few times, then threw his arms in the air.
"I'm so very proud of him," said his coach, American Bob Bowman, who also was Phelps' coach. "That's a tremendous, historic effort."
Next up for Marchand is the 200 individual medley, which begins with heats Thursday morning.
Later Wednesday, the first swimming world record of the Paris Games fell in the men's 100 freestyle, with China's Pan Zhanle shattering his own mark to win the gold medal with a time of 46.40 seconds.
In perhaps the most ferocious race in swimming, the 19-year-old Pan finished ahead of Australia's Kyle Chalmers (47.48), who won gold in the 100 free at Rio in 2016 and silver in Tokyo, and Romania's David Popovici (47.49).
Pan, who bested his 46.80 clocking at the February world championships in Doha, has not been implicated in any of the doping allegations that have surrounded the Chinese swimming team in the run-up to the Olympics.
Sweden's Sarah Sjöström made her fifth Olympics a gold medal celebration, as the 30-year-old veteran pulled off her own surge to the finish to win the women's 100 freestyle for the second gold of her brilliant career.
Sjöström had pared down her program at the past two world championships, swimming only the 50 freestyle. She decided to add the 100 at the Paris Games, and that decision paid off.
"I didn't think I would swim the 100 free honestly," said Sjöström, who has held the world record in the event for seven years. "I wanted to rest until the fifth day and [my coach] was like, 'No way. You need to go out there and see what you can do no matter the outcome.'"
Sjöström was only fourth at the turn but kicked into another gear on the return lap, touching in 52.16 seconds.
The U.S. team settled for another silver medal -- its eighth of the swimming competition -- when Torri Huske finished in 52.29. Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong took the bronze at 52.33, edging Australia's Mollie O'Callaghan by one-hundredth of a second.
And while American Ryan Murphy came to Paris with hopes of reclaiming his backstroke crowns, he'll have to settle for just a single bronze in the 100 after failing to qualify for the finals of the 200-meter race.
His time of 1 minutes, 56.62 seconds was only 10th-fastest out of 16 swimmers, leaving him a tenth of a second away from the top-eight finish he needed to advance to Thursday's final.
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