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EXCLUSIVE: What do you do aft winning 5 medals and becoming nan look of your location Olympic Games? That’s nan mobility we find Léon Marchand grappling pinch astatine nan commencement of a three-part doc astir nan swimming prodigy. A generational talent, nan young jock seems mislaid arsenic we prime up his post-Olympics communicative successful Léon Marchand: Beyond Gold.
“At nan opening of nan movie, we tin spot it, I’m confused, I don’t cognize wherever I’m going,” Marchand tells Deadline successful an exclusive interview. “Paris was truthful big. It was a dream and a extremity for French athletes and athletes astir nan world. So, erstwhile you do well, what’s aft that? I realized later that there’s truthful overmuch more. But it took maine a agelong clip to process it.”
Marchand did amended than ‘well.’ The superstar swimmer won 4 golden medals and a bronze. The doc shows him searching for meaning aft nan Paris occurrence and yet rediscovering information and purpose.
“After Paris, a batch of group astir apt thought I had reached a destination. In reality, I recovered myself asking caller questions: who americium I erstwhile I’m not racing, erstwhile I’m not successful nan pool, and what remains erstwhile everything slows down?”
Beyond Gold is some a coming-of-age communicative and a sports film. “I didn’t want to make a documentary conscionable astir swimming. A extremity of nan documentary was to show nan hidden broadside of elite sport, and besides to spell down nan occurrence astatine nan Olympics,” he says of nan bid which is produced by Quad Lab and nan Marchand family’s prodco Clox.
“You spot that it’s a benignant of a therapy for Léon,” says Yann Le Bourbouach who produced Beyond Gold. “Most of nan time, erstwhile we do [documentaries on] celebrities, it’s aft their careers. But present it’s a very clever young man, telling america [filmmakers]: ‘I want you to explicate what’s successful my mind aft winning everything. Did I triumph thing arsenic a quality being?’”
Quad co-produced Netflix’s Tour de France: Unchained series, which showed nan quality stories and play down nan motorcycle race. With Beyond Gold, nan look is similar. “The astir important point is that it’s not a athletics documentary,” says Le Bourbouach. “When we do Tour de France: Unchained aliases erstwhile we do Liliane Bettencourt (in Netflix’s The Billionaire, nan Butler & nan Boyfriend), it’s ever a quality story.”
Marchand’s father, Xavier, is simply a filmmaker and a erstwhile elite swimmer. He filmed his boy for Beyond Gold and co-directed pinch Sacha Vucinic. “You ever want to put nan champion type of yourself forward, truthful having my dada down nan camera was a awesome strategy and measurement for maine to beryllium much honorable astir what I’m doing, and conscionable person a normal, earthy conversation. I deliberation you tin really consciousness that erstwhile you watch nan documentary,” nan younger Marchand says.
The bid shows Marchand successful nan afterglow of making Olympic history arsenic he hangs retired pinch Formula One drivers, models for luxury brands and becomes an world star. Amid that, location is simply a young man looking to relight nan occurrence that drove him to golden and equilibrium this newfound fame pinch being 1 of nan champion athletes successful nan world. “If you statement aft nan F1 connected Saturday, Monday morning, you’re not gonna beryllium fresh to aquatics fast,” is his take.
Away from nan media shoots and glitz, elite athletics intends hours of dedication successful nan excavation and gym, which we see. Marchand travels to Australia to train pinch coach Dean Boxall. He past heads to nan U.S. to activity nether legendary coach Bob Bowman, and nan doc offers a model into nan sheer grind of training doubly a day.
As nan communicative unfolds and nan prima swimmer goes from France to Australia to nan U.S., nan information successful nan excavation slow returns. “Changing nan coaching [methods], changing nan environment, going to a different state really helped. We tin spot passim nan movie that nan power is coming back,” nan Marchand says. “The swimming passion is besides coming back.”
Next up is nan European Aquatics Championships, taking spot successful Paris this summer, and a homecoming for Marchand. His bid is for France Télévisions, nan country’s nationalist broadcaster, which will aerial it connected nan France 2 transmission successful nan fall, aft nan Championships.
Studio TF1, supplier of big-ticket docs including Gisèle Pelicot doc Drugged and Abused: No More Shame, is bringing it to nan world market.
Marchand is portion of a aureate procreation of French athletes that includes nan NBA’s Victor Wembanyama and rugby prima Antoine Dupont. Rodolphe Buet, Chief Distribution Officer astatine Studio TF1, believes that broader generational communicative is portion of nan series’ appeal.
“Beyond Gold is nan communicative of an iconic sports star, but what’s much important for america is that Léon’s communicative reflects a caller generation, which is highly talented, but questioning themselves and life, and considering what’s going connected astir them.”
In position of trading nan series, a marquee sports prima gives channels and platforms a caput start, he adds. “People are looking for awesome stories, and they are looking for brands and IP that are driving nan algorithm. There are very fewer names for illustration Léon Marchand, who tin perchance thrust nan algorithm, create a TV arena and beryllium connected nan beforehand page aliases nan proposal database of nan platform.”
With filming wrapped and nan doc soon to deed French TV and travel to nan world market, has nan play of reflection altered Marchand’s position connected sports – and life? “It decidedly changed me,” Marchand says. “I didn’t get answers from my questions, but I recovered myself really talking and speaking astir things, and improving nan questions.”
In position of sporting ambition, he says nan occurrence is afloat reignited. “I conscionable want to get amended and better. I conscionable want to break records. I want to attraction connected LA28, I want to effort different events, I want to train arsenic difficult arsenic I can. There are truthful galore things that I still want to do successful nan sport.”
