French Gold Medalist Leon Marchand Snubs Interview With Lea Salame’s Celebrity-Focused Olympics Show Because It ‘Doesn’t Fit His Values’
variety.comElsa Keslassy International Correspondent Leon Marchand, the 22 year-old swimming champion who made Team France proud with four gold medals and one silver at the Paris Olympics, ranks as one of the games’ biggest breakout athletes.
After wrapping up his last competition on Monday, Marchand, who is originally from Toulouse, in Southern France, and travelled to Paris with his parents and brother, embarked on a wall-to-wall media tour marathon but reportedly snubbed one of the Olympics’ most popular talk shows, “Quels Jeux,” which is hosted by prominent journalist Lea Salamé and airs on broadcaster France Televisions.
According to Le Parisien newspaper, it is because Salamé’s show “doesn’t fit his values,” although they didn’t expand on why that might be.
Still, the snub has been the talk of France’s Olympics-mad media. “Quels Jeux” has been criticized for being too celebrity-heavy at the expense of the actual sports, simply offering a platform for self-promotion.
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