After double, no rest for Marchand

Hours after winning a pair of gold medals, French star swimmer Léon Marchand was back in the pool Thursday morning in front of his adoring fans. The face of the Paris Games so far for France, Marchand had a Michael Phelps-like performance Wednesday night. He chased down world-record holder and defending Olympic champion Kristóf Milák to win the 200-meter butterfly in 1 minute 51.21 seconds, and then claimed the 200 breaststroke about two hours later in 2:05.85. Marchand was back for the preliminary heats of the 200 individual medley Thursday. The 22-year-old swam easily and recorded the third fastest time to advance to the night’s semifinals, in which he recorded the fastest time in 1:56.31. Marchand now has three gold medals in individual events in Paris and will go for his fourth on Friday night in the final 200 individual medley. That may complete his haul in Paris in front of adoring, chanting, flag-waving fans at the La Defense Arena. It’s unclear if he will swim any relays for France, which is not considered a medal contender in those events.

Murray now heads into retirement

Andy Murray’s professional tennis career ended with a loss in the Paris Olympics doubles quarterfinals Thursday night. The 37-year-old Murray had said the 2024 Summer Games would the final event of his career, and he and partner Dan Evans were beaten by the American duo of Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul 6-2, 6-4 at Roland Garros. The British pair had managed to stave off a total of seven match points — well, in this case, let’s call them “retirement points” — earlier in the tournament. But Murray and Evans could not create that sort of magic again against the third-seeded Fritz and Paul. Murray is a three-time Grand Slam singles champion and the only tennis player with two Olympic singles golds — from London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. His first Wimbledon championship, in 2013, made Murray the first man from Britain to win that trophy in 77 years. Murray has dealt with a series of injuries in the latter stages of his career. When Thursday’s match ended, there was a standing ovation from the crowd. Paul and Fritz applauded, too, as did Evans.

US claims its 1st fencing team gold

Lee Kiefer became the first American fencer to win three Olympic gold medals as the U.S. got its first-ever team fencing gold in women’s foil at the Paris Olympics on Thursday. The team of two-time individual gold medalist Kiefer, silver medalist Lauren Scruggs, Jacqueline Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub held on for a 45-39 win over Italy in the final. Scruggs faced a late rally from Italy’s Arianna Errigo, who cut an eight-point U.S. lead to three, but the 21-year-old took the next three points to close out the win and celebrated with a shout of delight. Weintraub, the U.S. team’s alternate, was substituted into the final and immediately faced Italy’s most experienced fencer, the 2012 gold medalist Errigo. That didn’t faze Weintraub, who went 6-4 against Errigo and 11-5 from her two matchups. Kiefer, above, earlier turned around the semifinal bout against Canada, going a combined 23-12 in her three matchups, including 13-4 against 16-year-old Yunjia Zhang when the U.S. had been four points down. The U.S. won 45-39. The U.S. now has four fencing medals at these Games. —AP