Léon Marchand expected at Club France for celebrations after making history at Paris Olympics
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Transcript
00:00Now that the pool events in swimming are over,
00:02something of a pool party for the competitors and the fans.
00:07It's underway at Club France.
00:09Clovis Casalie picked the short straw
00:11for this difficult assignment.
00:13Clovis, where are things at?
00:18There are worst assignments indeed, François.
00:21Here it's all about celebrations at the Club France.
00:24I can tell you the French male swimmers are here.
00:28Léon Marchand, the superstar, the new Michael Phelps,
00:31as so many people are calling him with his four gold medals,
00:34and also his partners, who he won the bronze in relay,
00:38all here, including Florent Manodou.
00:42He is, of course, the French flag bearer,
00:45and you can see around me more and more people,
00:47some people saying hi, more and more people,
00:49because the French swimmers are about to appear on stage
00:53to celebrate with all their supporters.
00:57And Clovis, it's, as you mentioned,
01:01bronze in the relays to finish it all off.
01:04A bit of a bittersweet feeling for the British,
01:07who finished in fourth place.
01:13Indeed, François, and we are, after all,
01:15an international news channel,
01:16so we're not just going to cover Club France.
01:18This morning, I was at Club GB in the Bois de Boulogne,
01:22and I got the chance to talk face-to-face with Adam Peaty.
01:25He's a legend in the sport,
01:27possibly the best 100m graystroke swimmer in history.
01:32He won two gold medals in the last Olympic Games,
01:36and this time he only got silver.
01:38He did get COVID after all, so he's clearly not on best form.
01:43I asked him about doping accusations he's been making.
01:46Actually, let's talk about a lack of transparency, as he puts it,
01:50and he believes China should be under scrutiny.
01:53Let's listen to him.
01:57I think the lack of transparency is very disappointing,
01:59firstly from Wada, and very suspicious.
02:03So, you know, I'm always a spoken athlete
02:06because I know how hard it is for an athlete
02:09who plays fair and true to do this sport,
02:13and I don't want to leave it in a place where,
02:15you know, maybe in four years' time,
02:17leave it in a place where, you know,
02:18people are getting away with it.
02:20They should be held accountable,
02:21because not only is it fraud for the people that are racing,
02:24but it's fraud for the people watching as well.
02:26And we need to treat it as so, and we just need to be better.
02:29And the people who are doing those jobs need to do it better.
02:32There's a lot of great people in sport, amazing people,
02:35but there's also people who let it down.
02:37And I think the transparency is going to be absolutely,
02:43it's just going to be crucial the next, you know,
02:46few Olympic Games to make sure that trust is still there.
02:51And clearly, he needed Adam Gritti to get this off his chest.
02:59And I asked him, do you think you will continue swimming?
03:02Do you want to continue swimming or are you going to retire?
03:06He said he needed to take time to think about the situation,
03:09take time to talk to his family and friends about it.
03:13Of course, when you're such a big swimmer, such an athlete,
03:17it's a lot of sacrifices and possibly he wants to take some rest for a bit.
03:22Anyway, he said he wanted to go back to the UK, rest.
03:25These games were still good for him.
03:28He did clinch silver and he saw his teammates win the gold
03:33in the 200 metre medley relay.
03:36So it was still a good game for him.
03:38And I asked him, of course, him and his teammates,
03:40how have these Paris Games been according to you?
03:44And he said, great atmosphere.
03:46And his teammates said, yes, but the food not that great in the athletes village.
03:51And that's why they got their own cook over.
03:54Clovis Casalie, we're going to have to continue this discussion
03:56about what the British consider good food.
03:59Thank you for that live update from Club France,
04:01where they're awaiting star swimmer Léon Marchand.