Leon Marcand becomes the first swimmer to win two individual gold medals in a single day since 1976

Leon Marchand did the unimaginable in Paris on Wednesday, winning two individual gold medals in under two hours.

The Frenchman started things off by creating a sensation in the men’s 200-meter butterfly final. He beat world record holder and defending champion Kristof Milak in 1:51.21 to win the gold medal. In doing so, he broke Mirac’s Olympic record and overtook Michael Phelps for second place all time.

Later in the session, Marchand outdid himself in the 200-meter breaststroke, running over another reigning champion. In the final, he clocked a time of 2 minutes 5.85 seconds to win the gold medal in a new Olympic record.

Marchand handily beat defending champion Zac Stubblety-Cook by almost a second, overtaking the Australian to become second all time in the event.

With these two victories, Marchand became just the fourth swimmer in history to win two individual gold medals on the same day – previously the others were Cornelia Ender of East Germany, Frederick Lane of Australia and Hungarian Alfred Hajos.

Phelps is one of two swimmers to win two gold medals on the same day, but one of them always competed in a relay.

In the women’s 200 free and 100 fly on July 22, 1976, at the Montreal Games, Ender won gold. She was a member of the East German doping regime in the 1970s, something she was unaware of, and she was eventually kicked from the squad after she refused to take a drug in 1977.

On August 12, 1900, at the Games in Paris, Lane won gold in the men’s 200 free and 200 obstacle events. On April 11, 1896, at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Hajos won gold in the men’s 100 and 1200 free events.

One swimmer who narrowly missed out on this feat was American John Naber, who won the 100 metres backstroke in 1976 and won the silver medal in the 200 metres freestyle 40 minutes later.

Not only did Marchand win both events on the same night, he dethroned the reigning champion and broke his own Olympic records in both races.

The Olympic schedule was significantly rearranged earlier this year to create a larger gap between the men’s 200m butterfly final and the 200m breaststroke final, and Marchand’s coaches had reportedly lobbied for the change.