Léon Marchand in history, Vingegaard’s brace, the crisis at PSG… The sporting summary of the weekend

In the balmy summer, the sports world is going stronger than ever. While the men’s Tour de France ended on the Champs Elysées, the women’s race started from Clermont-Ferrand, while on the other side of the world, Léon Marchand made history. The French swimmer won his first medal at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships with a world record in Japan. An archipelago that Kylian Mbappé will not see this summer, deprived of a Japanese tour of PSG. Still on the other side of the planet, in Australia, the Blues missed out on entering the World Cup, against modest Jamaica (0-0). Here’s everything you need to remember from the sports weekend.

Swimming World Championships: the gold of the Merchant

Being 21 years old, Léon Marchand knew he was expected at the Fukuoka Worlds. Since his first outing in the pool, the Frenchman has responded by going on to keep his planetary title in the 400 medley. Better: Toulousain, left to settle in the United States, broke the distance world record, held so far by legend Michael Phelps. The American, whose former coach now takes care of the Frenchman, has even gone so far as to reward the one that everyone presents as his heir.

“It’s excellent, I train for that every day. There, I break my time by two seconds, I set the record so it’s fantastic”savored Léon Marchand, winner in 4’2″50, one second and three tenths behind Phelps’ previous record. The Frenchman, already heralded as the tricolor star of the Paris Olympics, will also compete in the 200m butterfly, 200m medley and 200m breaststroke.

PSG: Mbappé, I missed my plane

The tone has changed on the side of PSG. While Kylian Mbappé has confirmed that he does not want to exercise the option that would extend his contract until the summer of 2025, the Parisian club has decided to sanction the player, who in this case would therefore be free next summer. On Friday, PSG announced that Kylian Mbappé was not part of the squad that flew to the club’s summer tour of Japan. As revealed by franceinfo, the captain of the Blues is therefore to be considered as such “on sale now” by Parisian leaders.

We remind you that Kylian Mbappé has until July 31st to activate this clause, but the player has no intention of doing so and proclaims his intention to complete the contract. On the part of the club, the position is clear: either the attacker extends the lease, or he will be sold this summer, because the possibility of seeing him leave next season is excluded. He therefore continues the tug of war, six years after his arrival in Paris against 180 million euros.

Tour de France: Vingegaard crowned, Kopecky in yellow for women

After killing the suspense in the Alps during the time trial between Passy and Combloux, then the day after on the slopes of the Col de la Loze, Jonas Vingegaard no longer had too many reasons to worry. The Dane’s only objective was to get through the weekend safely and cross the finish line on the Champs Elysées, which he did without problems on Sunday. Jonas Vingegaard thus officializes his second victory at the Grande Boucle, after last summer. The day before, on the slopes of the Vosges, he had also tried to scrape together a second stage of this edition, much to the chagrin of thousands of Thibaut Pinot enthusiasts. But the Dane was overtaken by Tadej Pogacar, the proud winner of a second stage of this Tour.

A few hours before the men’s arrival in Paris, the women’s race started from Clermont-Ferrand. After a loop of 123.8 km around the Auvergne capital and a fairly monotonous stage without the slightest breakaway, it was the Belgian Lotte Kopecky who won, alone. The SD-Worx team rider scored the double blow by bagging the yellow jersey. Her teammate Lorena Wiebes took second place, ahead of Charlotte Kool (Team DSM-Firmenich).

World Cup 2023: Les Bleues stalled at the start

For his debut in the Women’s World Cup, Hervé Renard was certainly hoping for something better. But the French coach, who surprised Argentina last November in the same stage of the men’s competition with Saudi Arabia, knows all too well that there are no more small teams at international level. A verified statement for the Azzurri, held in check in their first match in this World Cup by modest Jamaica (0-0).

Too shy in the face of the disciplined and athletic Jamaicans, the French failed to put the game down, guilty of too many inaccuracies in the penultimate gesture. Not serene enough in the realms of truth, especially against the goal of Reggae Girlzthe Tricolores put themselves in a delicate situation before facing Brazil in their second group game on Saturday.