His shoulders are broad, but will they be enough to spare French swimming a zero point in these Olympic Games in Tokyo? Second time in the semi-finals, Florent Manaudou will dive at the start of the 50m freestyle on Sunday 1er August at 3:30 am (Paris time) with a reasonable goal of the podium despite the cumbersome presence of the American Caeleb Dressel.
On his return to the pools, in March 2019, after a three-year detour through his youthful love, handball, the colossus (1.99 m, 105 kg, 2.10 m of arm span) refused to to be perceived as the “savior of the France team”.
Missed. The results leave no choice to the 2012 Olympic champion. It is not a surprise, but French swimming is at low tide. The time is no longer to count the medals or the titles like in Beijing in 2008 or London four years later, but rather the finals like at the time of the Atlanta Games. In Georgia, France had returned empty-handed for the last time. This was before the major reconstruction work launched by the then national technical director (DTN), Claude Fauquet.
To tell the truth, the result in Tokyo does not come as a surprise to specialists like Fabrice Pellerin. “It’s neither disappointing nor encouraging”, believes the coach of the Niçoise Charlotte Bonnet, who “Before the Games start” was having “In mind that France can make between 0 and 1 medal. I am not far from the account. ”
“In 2012, it was an extraordinary generation”
In a sport where the United States and Australia requisition a good part of the podiums, France has once again become an average nation of the basins. We must probably get used to the idea that the London Games, with their six medals, including four titles, were only a happy parenthesis. “In 2012, it was an extraordinary generation which did not reflect the structural level of our delegation”, sums up in The cross Sophie Kamoun, former Olympic finalist and consultant for RMC during the Tokyo Games.
Already in Rio, in 2016, French swimming had started a plunge with two silver medals embellished with some flowery exchanges between glorious alumni and leaders of the federation. Since then, the successive departures of the leading figures have not been compensated.
A new cycle has begun and Tokyo 2021 has been presented as a simple stepping stone towards the Paris Games, in three years. ” 2016 marked the end of an era, today we have talented young people who beat their best performances ”, despite everything trying to be positive the national technical director (DTN) Julien Issoulié.
In the absence of a flash in Tokyo, blue swimming had to be content with the promises of its young guard stamped “Paris 2024”: the Cyrielle Duhamel, Léon Marchand or even Maxime Grousset who took advantage of the postponement of the Games for one year. to get their qualifications.
At 19, the Toulousain Léon Marchand was convincing with his 6e place over 400m medley. To prepare for 2024, the son of Xavier Marchand (vice-world champion in the 200m medley in 1998) decided to join the University of Arizona in September to continue his progress under the orders of Bob Bowman. The former mentor of Michael Phelps is also full of praise for his “Frenchie”.
At 22, Maxime Grousset is no longer a youngster, but the 4e place of the New Caledonian in the 100m freestyle, in 47 seconds 72, installs him as one of the big caps of the world sprint. “The weather for the final would have brought him a bronze medal in Rio”, also observes his DTN.
A Dutchman at the helm
After Rio, many voices, including that of Olympic champion Alain Bernard, were raised to denounce a “Obsolete high level access route”. Five years later, the presidency of the FFN changed and the DTNs followed one another. But the holder, Julien Issoulié, is still not certain ” to have a higher density in three years in Paris or in seven years in Los Angeles ”.
To remedy this, Olympic Nice swimming coach Fabrice Pellerin recommends “Radically renew the breeding ground that feeds the French team”. Between the lines, Charlotte Bonnet’s coach encourages the FFN to break the glass ceiling established by the “Old guard” (of which his swimmer is part): “The Manaudou, Hennique, Metella ensure a minimum of performance, he explains, but there is a ceiling to these results. It would be riskier but more beneficial in the long term for each in its poles to invest in young people to create a big wave [de nageurs]. “
“To have more density, our best elements already need to perform as we saw at the French championships with the 200 m backstroke. [deux Français avaient réalisé les minimums pour les Jeux] “, we respond to the federation, even if this implies investing in swimmers who, for some, have exceeded their peak of growth.
Because creating an emulation takes time and Paris arrives quickly, the FFN relies on its ” Gavroches 2024 ”, nickname given to the swimmers scheduled for 2024. With this in mind, she recruited the Dutchman Jacco Verhaeren for ” catalyze [leur] potential ”. As he did with Australia (seven gold medals at the 2019 Worlds), the builder of the success of Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 2000s was responsible for giving new impetus to French swimming.
The interested party believes in the French potential. A question of demographics, he said. “In a country of how much? 60, 70 million inhabitants, there must necessarily be talents! So it’s our job to find them, Verhaeren announced in June on RMC. Afterwards, it is a question of giving them the best conditions to perform. “
The first stage of this reconstruction will still pass through Japan with the world championships from May 13 to 19, 2022, in Fukuoka.
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