Leon Marchand, Florent Manaudou, Summer Mcintosh, And Ariarne Titmus were presented The Google Trends search yearthe data overview of the search engine at the end of the year.

In France, home of the biggest sporting event of the year, Leon Marchand headed the list of athletes. The 22-year-old Toulouse native took home four gold medals, achieving superstar status in France and around the world.

A sprint veteran landed in 6th place on the French list Florent Manaudou. The 34-year-old has won medals for France in the 50 freestyle at each of the last four Olympic Games. He also secured France a bronze medal in the 400-meter medley relay (Marchand also swam breaststroke in that relay).

France was the only country to have a swimmer ranked No. 1, but Canada was the second-closest country. Eighteen-year-old phenomenon Summer McIntosh finished 2024 in second place among athletes in her home country. She ranked only behind the Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif. McIntosh took home four Olympic medals and became the first Canadian to ever win three gold medals in one game.

The year-end lists for Australia did not specifically include a list of top athletes. However, it did include an “Aussies” list of world record holders Ariarne Titmus landed at No. 10. Taking only local athletes from this list, she came in at No. 6, with viral Olympic breakdancer Raygun taking the top spot. At the second consecutive Olympic Games, Titmus won a highly competitive 400-meter freestyle field. She also won gold in the 4×200 freestyle and set the world record in the 200-meter freestyle at the trials in Australia.

An analysis on the main Google Trends page shows that Marchand was the most searched swimmer of 2024 worldwide. The GOAT Michael Phelps came second as an Olympic legend Katie Ledecky Rank 3. Check out the side-by-side comparison of the three over time and by country below. (blue = Marchand, red = Phelps, yellow = Ledecky).

The Olympic year gave swimmers a boost compared to the previous year. Marchand was the only swimmer to make the list in 2023, ranking No. 6 among athletes in France.