Leon Marchand’s Life after Paris Olympics Chronicled in ‘Beyond Gold’
The new documentary, “Leon Marchand: Beyond Gold,” takes a look at the four-time Olympic gold medalist’s life after his exploits in Paris in the 2024.
Marchand was one of the stars of his home games in Paris, winning gold medals in the 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 200 individual medley and 400 IM. It brought a whirlwind moment where he was one of the host country’s most recognizable faces, receiving calls from heads of state and featured in official ceremonies.
But the documentary, produced by Quad Lab with the Marchand family’s own production company Clox, shows an athletes coming to terms with success. Much of the journey includes discovering who he is outside of the pool and rediscovering his motivation for the sport – as he puts it, “who am I when I’m not racing, when I’m not in the pool, and what remains when everything slows down?”
“At the beginning of the movie, we can see it, I’m confused, I don’t know where I’m going,” Marchand said in an interview with Deadline. “Paris was so big. It was a dream and a goal for French athletes and athletes around the world. So, when you do well, what’s after that? I realized later that there’s so much more. But it took me a long time to process it.”
The show is produced by Yann Le Bourbouach. Quad Labs co-produced the “Tour de France: Unchained” series for Netflix. The show also has the hand of Xavier Marchand, like his son a collegiate swimmer and French Olympian, who is a filmmaker. He co-directed the project with Sacha Vucinic, following Leon to training destinations in the United States and Australia and documenting his time out of the water.
“You always want to put the best version of yourself forward, so having my dad behind the camera was a great strategy and way for me to be more honest about what I’m doing, and just have a normal, natural conversation. I think you can really feel that when you watch the documentary,” Leon said.
The documentary will air on France Televisions ahead of the European Aquatics Championships in Paris this summer. It will stream on the France.tv platform in July before airing on the channel, France 2. It is to be distributed internationally by TF1.
