IYou can’t miss Léon Marchand in Paris, his photo running the entire 200 metres of the only skyscraper within the city limits, the Tour Montparnasse. Marchand is 22 and has never won an Olympic medal, but he is one of three French faces at the Games, along with Antoine Dupont and Victor Wembanyana. It means that for the first time since Michael Phelps set himself the impossible task of winning eight gold medals in Beijing in 2008, a swimmer will be the star of the Olympics. It’s no coincidence that Marchand finally broke Phelps’ last remaining solo world record, in the 400m medley, last year.
Marchand will compete in four separate solo events over seven days, the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke, with the finals just an hour and a half away on Wednesday night, the 200m later in the week and the 400m individual medley, the first event, on Sunday night. That night he will share the top billing with Adam Peaty, who is attempting to become the second man, after Phelps, to win the event at three consecutive Games. There was a time when Peaty was the closest thing to a sure thing in the sport, but he has had a tough three years since Tokyo and, despite having the fastest time in the world this year, he is still searching for his very best form.
He’ll need it, because he’s racing against China’s Qin Haiyang, who won last year’s world championship. Qin is a key character in the other great story of these Games. He’s one of 11 Chinese swimmers competing here who tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug TMZ, but were cleared of any wrongdoing on the grounds that it was apparently caused by cross-contamination in a team hotel kitchen. The scandal has split the sport into two rival factions, one of which has grown up around the US, whose own national anti-doping association has led calls for further investigation.
Several of the nation’s most prominent athletes have already said they’re not sure they’re competing fairly. Caleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky, who have won seven gold medals each, have spoken out about it. Dressel gave a blunt “no” when asked if he had confidence in World Aquatics’ ability to police the sport, an awkward response given that the president was sitting three seats away at the same press conference. The Chinese, meanwhile, are aggrieved at being accused even after being cleared of wrongdoing by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Qin himself has spoken of an “American plot” to upset the team.
Swimming governance has been abysmal for decades, with the Rio and Tokyo Games both overshadowed by the mismanagement of doping cases. It has become something of an Olympic tradition (there are others: Bert le Clos, better known as Chad’s fatherarrived in Paris on Friday to see his son compete again). While the current regime has attempted to reform the sport, its efforts have been somewhat undermined by the fact that the man leading them, President Husain al-Musallam, was previously named by the US Justice Department as an accomplice in a corruption scandal at FIFA, and has is being investigated by the ethics committee of the Kuwait Olympic Committee.
So the Olympics aren’t just about the old U.S.-Australia rivalry—which reaches a fever pitch Saturday night in the women’s 400m freestyle, when Ledecky takes on reigning Olympic champion Ariarne Titmuss and Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh—but also an even bigger rivalry between the Chinese and Western teams. Marchand and Britain’s Duncan Scott will both have to beat another Chinese 11 member, Wang Shun, in the men’s 200m individual medley, in one of the week’s marquee races.
For the British team, everything depends on the ability of Peaty, Scott and their team-mates to peak under the greatest pressure. They did it in Tokyo, in what was the team’s most successful Games ever. But swimming, as GB’s performance director, Bill Furniss, often says, is a “fingertip sport” and wildly unpredictable. Tom Dean, the Olympic men’s 200m freestyle champion, didn’t even make it to the British trials. The man who beat him, Matt Richards, is another who could be in contention for a medal if he can peak at the right moment.
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Great Britain will be hoping to win medals in the relays. They are favourites for the men’s 4x200m freestyle and also have a shot at the men’s 4x100m, men’s individual medley and mixed medley, but they will still need to try and match the eight medals they won in Tokyo. That said, Furniss looks to have the talent to get the best out of them at these Championships, and if Peaty and Scott rise to the occasion, they could inspire other contenders such as Ben Proud in the 50m freestyle, Freya Colbert in the two individual medleys and Laura Stephens in the 200m butterfly to do the same. Whatever happens and whoever wins, it will be fascinating viewing.