Despair for Britain’s Max Litchfield in Paris
As Leon Marchand soaked in the adulation amid deafening noise at La Defense Arena on Sunday night, Max Litchfield stood in a much quieter corridor no more than 50 metres away, holding back tears.
The men’s 400 metre medley final, the first event in a thrilling session of swimming, delivered a scene of brutal sporting contrasts.
For France’s Marchand, roared to glory by a wild home crowd, there was glory. For Litchfield, there was only despair.
This was the third time he has competed at an Olympic Games and the third time he has finished fourth in his event. This time he swam faster than he ever had before, setting a new British record. It still wasn’t enough.
“What more can I do?” the Yorkshireman wondered, red-eyed, into a sea of tape recorders.
Litchfield’s experience was a reminder for every dream realised here in Paris over the next fortnight, more will be broken. Such is the brutal nature of elite sport.
And yet Litchfield, just like Adam Peaty a couple of hours later, fronted up to the media and sought answers where in reality there were none.
Win or lose, they all do, swimmers at La Defense walking down a makeshift alley under a temporary stand in what is an extraordinary, multipurpose structure.
First opened in 2017, the Arena normally hosts the rugby team Racing 92, with a capacity of more than 40,000.
Yet it also doubles as an architectural chameleon and for the Olympics, just as it frequently is for concerts, it has been transformed into an indoor venue, with room for around 15,000 spectators. You can watch the time lapse video online. It’s fairly mind-bending stuff.
On Sunday, as Marchand headed for victory, it sounded like several times more than 15,000 were inside.
