Frenchman Leon Marchand grabs fourth gold of Paris Games

PARIS -- France's Leon Marchand brought the host nation to a standstill once again on Friday with his fourth gold of the Paris Olympics, while Australian Kaylee McKeown wrote history of her own as the first woman to retain both backstroke titles.

Marchand did it in style, roared to the rafters by a rapturous crowd as he joined American greats Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz as the only male swimmers to have won four individual titles at a single Games.

Emphasizing his status as the hottest property in the pool, the 22-year-old shattered the 200-meter individual medley Olympic record of 1:54.23 set by Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Games and replaced it with a new best of 1:54.06.

It is the fourth such record set by the poster boy of the Paris Games -- who has taken the burden of expectation and shaped it into another source of strength -- in as many finals in the La Defense Arena.

Around the city, and at other venues, crowds celebrated and burst into the national anthem.

At the Stade de France, scene of France's momentous 1998 World Cup soccer triumph and venue for the track and field events, the decathlon 400-meter race had to be delayed due to the noise from the stands.

Touching the wall well behind Marchand, Britain's Duncan Scott took silver to stretch his record for a British swimmer to eight Olympic medals while China's Wang Shun collected the bronze.

Scott's total of two relay golds and six silvers also took him beyond cyclist Chris Hoy as Scotland's most medaled Olympic athlete.

--Australia's Cameron McEvoy took his first Olympic gold medal when he won the men's 50-meter freestyle at the Paris Games on Friday, denying Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel of the United States another medal.

Dressel finished sixth, off the pace kept by McEvoy and Britain's Ben Proud, who took the silver medal. France's Florent Manaudou claimed the bronze 12 years after he won gold at London 2012.

McEvoy is the first Australian man to win the shortest distance on the program.

--In between the men's races, the remarkable McKeown found her own space to shine.

The 23-year-old world record holder again overhauled hapless American challenger Regan Smith to claim the win in an Olympic record 2:03.73.

Smith, more than a half-second adrift, took her third silver of the Games, denied gold for a second time by the Australian who also beat her for the 100-meter title on day four.

Kylie Masse took bronze for Canada, her fifth Olympic medal, three years after earning silvers in both the 100 and 200 at Tokyo.

--Reuters, Special to Field Level Media