The French swimmer Léon Marchand understood that he would be his country’s marquee athlete at the Paris Games, and he surely is. Event workers stop him to sneak in selfies. A giant photo of him on the starting blocks adorns a skyscraper. Cameras are trained on him everywhere he goes.
But Marchand’s star turn didn’t begin just this week. Even in the months leading up to the Games, his growing fame was evident thousands of miles away in Arizona, where he was swimming for Arizona State. After a road meet at the University of Arizona, fans lined up to have him sign whatever they had handy — a swim cap, Nike Jordans, a scrap of paper.