Leon Marchand said he often needed to disguise himself to escape attention.© AFP
The French Olympic swimming hero Leon Marchand said Wednesday that his record exploits in the Paris swimming pool had changed his life so much that he often needed to disguise himself to escape attention. The 22 -year -old won his four individual races at the Games – the 200m Papillon, the 200m brew and double from 200m to 400m. He plunged him into Elite Company as the first male swimmer to do so in the simple matches since the American legend Michael Phelps in 2008. However, the fame has its occasional drawbacks.
“I will lose a little freedom and spontaneity because I can no longer go to restaurants as I did,” said Marchand while Toulouse celebrated his new Olympic star.
“I need to organize myself a little more. I can’t shop alone. I wear a cap and glasses. I try to hide a little.
“But when people stop me in the street, that’s to say” thank you “. It’s nice and I take her to my heart.”
He added: “I got used to it fairly quickly even if the first weeks were difficult, because it is a fairly radical change in status.”
Marchand said that the Paris Olympic Games, which were widely rented for their gentle organization, had sparked a wave of optimism in the country.
“France has changed and I hope it will last,” said Marchand.
“Sport is something very special. It transmits an emotion that you cannot have nowhere else and the French have achieved this. We must continue to celebrate athletes, try to put more resources in infrastructure, more sport in schools.”
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
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