Leon Marchand of France and Kaylee McKeown of Australia have been selected as flag bearers for the closing ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Update: Marchand will not be the male flag bearer for the French at the closing ceremony.
Marchand was the most individually decorated swimmer at the Paris Olympics, winning four golds and one bronze medal last week. The 22 year old grew his fame in front of the home crowd and has already seen his Instagram following grow 6x during the last two weeks.
Marchand went four for four in Olympic Records while in Paris, notably winning gold in the “dirty double” 200 fly and 200 breast during the same session. He will be the flag bearer alongside Pauline Ferrand-Prevot who won gold in women’s cross country mountain biking.
France notably also had a swimmer as a flag bearer at the opening ceremony. Florent Manaudou was a flag bearer alongside Melina Robert-Michon. Manaudou won two bronze medals during competition in Paris.
McKeown of Australia won five medals while in Paris, two gold, one silver, and one bronze. She made Olympic history as well, becoming the first woman to ever win both the 100 and 200 backstroke events in back-to-back Olympics. She set Olympic Records in both of her wins as well.
Australia will also be represented by Matt Wearn of sailing at the closing ceremony, as he will be the men’s flag bearer.
The closing ceremony is scheduled to begin at 9 pm local time in Paris (3 pm EST) on August 11th. It is scheduled to end at midnight local time (6 pm EST). The two join Katie Ledecky of the US as swimmers who have been selected to be flag bearers.
It’s now official… Summer & Ethan are Canada’s flag bearers!
Marchand has been replaced by a rugby player!!! Decision of a member of the French Olympic Committee (an administrative person who probably knows nothing about sport). France does not deserve the talent of Léon Marchand (I say it because I am French)!
Marchand will now transfer to USA for LA28 .. lol
This would not bother me, since French officials do not want him.
I correct my comment because, in fact, they made Lėon play a major role in the closing ceremony..
You are probably right, Marchand will have other opportunities as he will dominate the scene in the coming years, but I think it is right to give the greatest rugby player in the world Antoine Dupont this privilege.
Add Summer to the list!
Swimming Canada just announced Summer is a flag bearer.
Summer is probably on a plane flying back to be flag bearer and Canada still hasn’t announced it.
Not sure what the deal is with Canada NOT announcing who the flag bearer is 24h away from the closing ceremony…
It would be surprising if it wasn’t Summer but still. The girl has a flight to catch if she is the one.
Yeah this is so strange… could be the hammerthrowers or degrasse maybe but still no reason to not announce. There won’t be any major changes in the next day
PHIL WIZARD!!!!!!
Got me there
I think it’ll be Ethan Katzberg.
Would also be a great choice.
It seems like they get a man and a woman this year for the first time.
I think Penny Oleksiak deserves that honour for Cansda. She’s given a lot in 3 Olympics and has 7 medals for Canada.
she carried it in 2016
Boys of Summer! To the downvote button!
That would be more of an Opening Ceremony honour. The Closing Ceremony honour is usually given to a very successful athlete from those Games.
Marchand is so good…I hope he finds motivation to try to go at least another year of full training with no distractions to try and get WR’s in the medley races and the 200 breastroke and in short course too.
I also have a wish for 2024/25: Katie Ledecky goes to a short course world championships and she goes fully tapered. We need that at least once Katie. Please
Marchand has announced to French media he would stay 6 months in France before coming back to training in Texas with Bob Bowman next January. He will be present for the 3 stops of the SC World cup in Asia, october-november. And he’ll participate at the SC World Championships in Budapest, next December. And a new challenge for him in the future. The 200 freestyle and probably the 400 freestyle.
This Le Monde interview says a month and a half, not six months. Also talks about how tough Bowman is as a coach. I know I read in a different Le Monde article that Bowman was the one pushing him to come back so quickly.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/sports/article/2024/08/10/leon-marchand-four-time-olympic-champion-i-want-to-break-as-many-records-as-possible_6712310_9.html
A month and a half is the vacation that Bob Bowman gave him.