He’s the biggest fanboy at the Olympics. He’s also the president of France.

Desperate to be in the building for as many French gold victories as possible, he has spent the past week scrambling around judo, fencing, swimming, and BMX cycling, all while monitoring a special WhatsApp feed set up to alert him to any tricolore triumph.

Now, as the Olympics draws to a close on Sunday, that superfan will have to go back to his day job: running the country.

“These Games are truly historic," French president Emmanuel Macron tweeted after French cyclists took cycling silver and bronze under the Eiffel Tower. “The Games of French panache!"

There may be no one in France who is dreading the end of the Olympics more than its own head of state. Which is why Macron tried to extend the party by announcing a parade on the Champs-Elysées for France’s Olympians on Sept. 14 to celebrate their largest gold medal haul since the 1900 Games.

Before the start of the Games, Macron declared an Olympics truce among the country’s warring political parties, giving millions of French a reprieve from the chaos and dysfunction that Macron himself ushered into existence. It began in June with Macron calling snap elections for the National Assembly, a move he cast as a gesture of democratic “clarification." Instead the vote produced the most fractured assembly in French history, diminishing his pro-business party’s share of seats and boosting those of the far-right National Front to a historic level.

As the Games wrap up and the honeymoon ends, Macron is waking up to a nightmare. He will come under immediate pressure to pick a prime minister and form a government that can survive a confidence vote in the fractious assembly.

Instead of sharing the spotlight with victorious Olympians, Macron will have to face the ranks of far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon who, after his leftist alliance won the most seats in the snap elections, had some choice words for the president.

“Bow down," Mélenchon said.

At first, it seemed like Macron was ready to withdraw from the Olympic spotlight. After presiding over the Opening Ceremony on July 26, he took a few days of vacation to the South of France.

But as the Games gathered momentum, Macron couldn’t resist joining the party. Despite his unpopularity with the French public, the president went on a cheer offensive all over Paris. He made sure to be at the pool to embrace a still-dripping Léon Marchand after the French swimming hero claimed his fourth gold of the Games. (“Impossible isn’t French," Macron tweeted that night.) He challenged rugby captain Antoine Dupont to bring home the sevens title and then swelled with pride in the Stade de France as Dupont pulled it off. He went to an equestrian event at the Versailles Palace and sat with the Prince of Monaco.

Macron even consoled judoka Romane Dicko when she lost by wiping away her tears and looked after judoka Teddy Riner’s 5-year-old daughter while her father collected Olympic gold.

In a post on X, Macron called him “Teddy Winner."

Though he stopped short of making the jaunt to Teahupo’o in the South Pacific to watch Tahitian surfer Kauli Vaast win for France in home water, Macron still couldn’t contain his excitement. “Congratulations champion," he wrote on X, “And thank you Tahiti for this dreamy setting—a national treasure."

Not only is Macron France’s commander-in-chief and head cheerleader, he also considers himself to be something of a general manager to Team France.

In 2018, when France’s soccer team won the Russia World Cup, Macron led the players’ on-field celebrations in the Moscow rain. Four years later in Qatar, he took it upon himself to console Les Bleus as they sank to the turf after losing the World Cup final to Argentina. On that night, despite Macron’s best efforts, French superstar Kylian Mbappé wasn’t terribly interested in having his president help him to his feet.

But two years ago, when Mbappé was weighing a move away from his hometown club of Paris Saint-Germain, Macron joined former president Nicolas Sarkozy in personally lobbying Mbappé to remain in the country. The pleas worked, but only for a little while—Mbappé finally traded PSG for Real Madrid earlier this summer.

Macron wasn’t any more convincing in his talks with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez when he tried to secure permission for Mbappé to play in the Paris Olympics. Perez had little interest in exposing his prized asset to potential injury right before the Spanish season kicked off.

Clearly, Macron’s brand of diplomacy wasn’t suited to soccer. It soon became clear that it wasn’t much use in basketball either.

When Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid was deciding what country to represent internationally, Macron made a personal phone call to woo the 7-footer—who in turn courted France’s leader back. In a letter to Macron, Embiid wrote that if he were granted citizenship, Les Bleus were the team he wanted to represent.

“It was an honor," Embiid said. “Having the French president message you, get on the call. It was surreal."

The country couldn’t mail him a passport fast enough. As it turned out, it was just an Embiid headfake. Once he got his passport, he still opted to play for the U.S. in Paris.

And on Saturday night, as the U.S. stared down France in the men’s basketball gold medal game, Macron was on hand once again. Sitting in the stands of Bercy Arena, the president was seen chatting with U.S. second gentleman Doug Emhoff. With his jacket off and his navy tie still knotted, he took a selfie with Jimmy Fallon.

But in the end, Macron never got the golden moment he’d really come for. France’s basketball team had to settle for silver.