In what year did you leave Beaujolais?
I left in 2012 just after my baccalaureate, to a sports study high school. I could hope to be in Marseille and study there. My post-baccalaureate project was 80% sports and 20% student.
Why Marseille?
I was lucky to have my big brother who swam at the Marseille club, who managed to get in almost accidentally. As we know that genetics are important in these sports, when there is a brother or sister who is strong, often the little brother or sister has little qualities too. If I didn’t go to Marseille, it was Lyon. So either way, I was going to move.
Arriving in Marseille, how did you feel on a sporting level?
I didn’t really know how it was going to go and quickly, I realized that the pace that was being asked of me was a professional pace. I had two training sessions a day, plus weight training, plus physiotherapy, plus all the extras. So it was complicated to reconcile the two at the beginning, but in the end, it worked and I arrived at the Rio Games in 2016 and there, it became even more professional.
By staying in your original club, were the Olympics accessible?
No way. It has nothing to do. I trained four, even five times a week when I was in Villefranche. When I arrived in Marseille, I went to eleven training sessions, plus the rest. I almost quadrupled my annual mileage. Without denigrating Villefranche, the management is much better because of their high level experience, the swimmers on the team. I wasn’t particularly talented when I was young, so I wouldn’t have exploded without know-how that could maximize my potential.
Have you noticed any particular difference in infrastructure?
In Villefranche, we stay on a 25 m pool. There is no developed weight room, unlike Marseille, where there are 25 and 50 m pools with a weight room, equipment and schedules which allow you to go there whenever you want. It also affects performance because at the professional level, no one trains on a 25 m pool.
What is your opinion of the Villefranche club?
The NVB is a great training club. There is a big training system and they are competent, thanks to a few coaches who have traveled a bit in France. They can have good results at national level in the Youth categories. The club brings out high-performance hopefuls who can go on to flourish in other structures.
