Léon Marchand delivered a swimming gold for France with a dominating victory in the men's 400-meter individual medley Sunday night.

He finished just outside his own world record time but beat the Olympic best, previously set by American great Michael Phelps at the Beijing Games in 2008.

Marchand was ahead as soon as his head popped from the water and he steadily pulled away from the field in what was essentially two separate races: Marchand racing the clock and everyone else competing for silver and bronze.

The first of what the rising star hopes will be four individual golds in Paris was secured by a margin of 5.67 seconds over Japan's Tomoyuki Matsushita in second, with the USA's Carson Foster third at the La Defense Arena.

Great Britain's Max Litchfield finished fourth in the event for a third Olympics in a row, but set a new British record of four minutes 8.85 seconds.

Marchand, 22, has been one of the poster boys in the build-up to these Games and was roared home by the partisan crowd.

Marchand is coached in the US by Phelps' former mentor Bob Bowman, having sent a letter to the 59-year-old American prior to the last Olympics asking for help, while Phelps was in the arena to witness the win.

He will also compete in the 200m medley, the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke.

Not surprisingly, the young Frenchman has drawn comparisons to Phelps and is guided by the same coach, American Bob Bowman, who was with the most decorated athlete in Olympic history throughout his career.

Marchand lived up to those staggering expectations, for one night at least, and fulfilled the hopes of the host nation with a performance that sets him up to be one of the biggest stars of the Paris Games.