WATCH: Leon Marchand ignores congratulatory handshake from China's coach during the medal ceremony at the Paris Olympics

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Aug 04, 2024 08:11 GMT

French swimmer Leon Marchand is being criticized for an incident at the 2024 Paris Olympics whose video recently went viral on social media. The multiple Olympic gold medalist has been accused of discriminating against a Chinese coach.

In the clip from the medal ceremony of the men's 200m individual medley event at the Games, Marchand is seen proceeding towards the podium to claim his gold during which he seems to ignore a handshake offered by the coach.

Duncan Scott of Great Britain won the silver and Wang Shun of China the bronze medal. The Chinese coach, apparently as a matter of courtesy, extended his hand toward Marchand but Marchand ducks under the tape barrier and proceeds toward the podium, going past the coach without returning the handshake. It is unclear if his ignorance was deliberate or not, but Chinese fans have already started criticizing him on their social media platform, Weibo.

Notably, Marchand is not the first one to be accused of discriminating against the Chinese swimming team.

A couple of days ago, Chinese swimmer Pan Zhenle, who broke his own world record in the men's 100m freestyle finals, accused Kyle Chalmers from Australia of snubbing him, and the American relay swimmers of misbehaving with his coach during the preparations for the men's 4x100m freestyle relay. Chalmers has denied the claim.

Irrespective of Marchand's alleged handshake 'snub', the French swimmer has created an impressive legacy at the Paris Olympics.

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Leon Marchand's top performances at the Paris Olympics

If Leon Marchand was an individual nation, his tally of four Olympic gold medals would give him a place in the top 10 at the Paris Olympics' overall medal tally so far.

French swimmer Leon Marchand with silver medalist Duncan Scott of Great Britain and bronze medalist Wang Shun of China at the medal ceremony of the Men's 200m Individual Medley at the 2024 Paris Olympics [Image Source: Getty]

Trained by Bob Bowman who helped make Michael Phelps a living legend, Marchand won all the four men's individual races he contested in: 200m breaststroke, 200m butterfly, 200m individual medley and 400m individual medley.

In fact, during the men's 200m individual medley, Marchand came close to breaking the 13-year-old world record set by Ryan Lochte of the USA in 2011. However, he missed it by a few hundredths of a second. Yet, his time of 1 minute, 54.06 seconds is a new Olympic record in the event.

Marchand will now be aiming for another podium finish in the 4x100m medley whose finals will be conducted tonight at the Olympics Aquatics Centre in Paris.