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French swimming grouped around 2024

2022-08-18T15:30:17.834Z


The French team surprised at the Euros by relying, in particular, on the strength of its relays. By winning 8 medals at the recent world championships in Budapest, the French swimming team had been able to turn the page, failed, of the Tokyo Olympics a year earlier, where only Florent Manaudou, silver medalist in the 50 m freestyle, had saved him a zero point. In the Magyar capital, the Blues had been able to rely on the formidable rise of Léon Marchand, triple medalist and double world champ


By winning 8 medals at the recent world championships in Budapest, the French swimming team had been able to turn the page, failed, of the Tokyo Olympics a year earlier, where only Florent Manaudou, silver medalist in the 50 m freestyle, had saved him a zero point.

In the Magyar capital, the Blues had been able to rely on the formidable rise of Léon Marchand, triple medalist and double world champion in the 200m and 400m medley.

Except that the 20-year-old Toulousain


– double American university course requires – was not present in Rome to confirm during the European championships, which ended on Wednesday evening.

Neither Florent Manaudou, the troop leader, nor Mélanie Henique, the vice-world champion in the 50m butterfly.

And yet France surprised by shining in the Roman basin!

With 13 medals on the clock, including 3 titles, the Blues have done better than defend themselves.

Two years ago, during the previous continental competition, France only gleaned 5 podiums.

The sign that a progression, as well as a momentum, exists within this collective, which was able to rely in Rome on the excellence of its relays (5 podiums, including 1 title in the 4 × 100 m freestyle mixed).

"These relay medals prove once again that the strength of the team allows us to achieve incredible things,"

says Béryl Gastaldello, silver medalist in the 4 × 100 m medley relay.

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“We just pulled off a heck of a heist and I think this is just the start.

The other nations are afraid of us when they see us arrive in the appeal room.

An opinion shared by her teammate Marie Wattel:

“I really trust my partners.

It's true that, sometimes, we say to ourselves that it's up to one or two people to carry the team, but here I feel that there are really four of us and that we are pulling ourselves up.

We want to surpass ourselves for others.

It gives the results of this week…”

collective strength

Obviously, in the absence of American and Australian relays, this collective strength remains to be put into perspective.

Moreover, during the last Worlds, the Blues had not managed to win any medal in the relay.

However, the emergence of several individual talents is likely to make us optimistic for the next Games, in Paris, in 2024. Léon Marchand is not alone.

Even if he struggled to link World and Europe, Maxime Grousset (23) remains a very solid asset in the sprint.

Just like Marie Wattel (25), double European silver medalist in the 50 and 100 m butterfly.

And the good news comes from the back with the Yohann Ndoye Brouard-Analia Pigrée tandem, both 21 years old.

The former achieved a hat-trick with gold in the 200m, bronze in the 100m and silver in the 4 × 100m medley relay, while the latter proved that her world bronze medal in the 50m backstroke, a month ago, owed nothing to chance as she won the European crown over the same distance in Rome.

With two more years to perfect themselves, this new generation has everything to arrive in Paris on time, with an exceptional gondola head (Marchand), a captain with shoulders as broad as his record (Manaudou) and many young talents who have already started to blossom internationally.

And as, collectively, the mayonnaise has obviously taken well, it does not seem impossible for French swimming to regain its Olympic level in London in 2012 (7 medals including 4 titles).

Source: lefigaro

All sports articles on 2022-08-18

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