The same… A year later.
The large pool events of the European Swimming Championships begin this Monday in Budapest and will end on May 23, 61 days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
As expected ... In 2020. Expected for three years, the continental meeting is however of a very relative value, in particular for the French swimmers, who have the mind turned towards the championships of France of Chartres (June 15 to 20), where almost all of them will play their seats on the plane to Tokyo.
"Some have chosen not to participate in order not to take any risk before France", explains the DTN, Julien Issoulié.
Others will come just to calibrate.
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This will be the second time this season that top European swimmers will dive in Hungary. In the fall of 2020, despite the pandemic, the capital had hosted for six weeks in a sanitary bubble the second season of the ISL, the private swimming league. As if engaged in a show of force spurred on by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Budapest has hosted a plethora of sporting events in recent months.
And it is the only one of the host cities of the Euro football which announced at the rate of 100% filling of the Puskas Arena (67,215 places) for the three group matches (including two of the France team against Hungary, June 19 at 3 p.m., then Portugal, June 23 at 9 p.m.) and the round of 16 scheduled.
On the other hand, Budapest has definitively given up on the Fed Cup, which it should have received in April and for which a postponement date is still awaited.
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To date, only five swimmers have already won their ticket to Tokyo during a first phase of selection.
They are Florent Manaudou (50m), Yohann Ndoye Brouard (100m backstroke and 200m backstroke), David Aubry (800m), Marie Wattel (100m and 100m butterfly) and Mélanie Hènes (50m).
This quintet can therefore approach the Hungarian stay with serenity and ambition, without having to think of France.
Read also "This contact with water is innate": swimmer Yohann Ndoye Brouard in the footsteps of Lacourt and Stravius at the Olympics
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Florent Manaudou, the leader of the Blues, has six European titles to his list.
Four in 2014 (50 m, 100 m, 50 m butterfly and 4 x 100 m), after splashing his talent in the Berlin basin, and two in 2016 (50 m and 4 x 100 m).
In 2018, the London Olympic champion was present at the Glasgow Euro… In the stands.
Then handball player, the sprinter of the Cercle des Nageurs de Marseille had covered the event as a TV consultant.
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Three years ago, the Blues left Scotland with seven medals (four gold, one silver, two bronze).
The Marseillaise sounded for the women's 4 x 100 m, the mixed 4 x 100 m, Charlotte Bonnet (200 m) and Fantine Lesaffre (400 m), who preferred to skip this year.
The record for French medals in the competition dates back to 2010. The Habs had gleaned 21 medals (eight gold, seven silver, six bronze) on Marguerite Island… From Budapest.
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Ten days of isolation await the competitors, in the event of a positive Covid-19 test (five for contact cases).
After having been checked 48 hours before their arrival in Hungary, then twice on site to be able to access the health bubble, the swimmers will be tested again at least once a week.
Their trips will be limited to the hotel-Duna Arena journey in the official shuttles and access to the competition and warm-up pools will be limited.
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Thirty-four tricolor swimmers (12 girls and 22 boys) will dive into the Duna Arena on the banks of a Danube which they hope will be blue. A mix of regulars (Charlotte Bonnet, Mehdy Metella, David Aubry) and promising young talents (Léon Marchand, Yohann Ndoye Brouard, Mewen Tomac or Emilien Mattenet). They will thus be thirteen to know their first selection in an international championship in large basin. "We can expect nice surprises," predicts Richard Martinez, director of swimming racing.