The French short course swimming championships end on Sunday November 3 in Montpellier. This is the first major competition since this summer's Olympic Games, an opportunity to discover new faces, especially since French swimming star Léon Marchand and dean Florent Manaudou are not there.
The French Federation has targeted around twenty swimmers under the age of 20 with one ambition: to bring them to the highest level by the Los Angeles Olympics in four years.
For the first time in his very young career, Pierre Largeron reached a podium this week in Montpellier: a second place in the 400m freestyle. At 19, the swimmer from Canet en Roussillon already has a clear idea of his future: “Go to the Games in 2028, and not to make up the numbers. I really want to get into a final and if I can get a podium that would be incredible.”
“It’s still a big step to take to join the France A team, but the door is open.”
Pierre Largeronat franceinfo
A clear trajectory also for Ethan Dumesnil. No podium for him in Montpellier in his specialty of butterfly, but the Caledonian who trains at INSEP in Paris achieved the best French performance for 18 year olds, after that of 15, 16 and 17 year olds. “I trained with my father for about three years and I decided to leave Caledonia because I needed to train with new people. In competition too I was starting to know all the swimmers and I had need to see something new. Now I'm doing my fourth year at INSEP.
If there is one area in which succession is becoming urgent, it is the French women's team. Due to a lack of results, its captain Charlotte Bonnet retired from sport. The federation is counting on a handful of swimmers to take over, like Manon Domingeon, a 19-year-old backstroker, licensed in Grenoble and studying life sciences.
“It’s not bad from time to time to renew the French team.”
Manon Domingeonat franceinfo
“It's been the same for a few years, the younger generations are coming, even generations below me who are swimming very, very fast, who scare me I'll admit it, but sincerely I think that the new generation is taking over the place”, confides Manon.
So many promising profiles, but be careful, Denis Auguin, the director of the French teams, already warns: the road to Los Angeles is still very long. “For those who are 16 years old the road is very, very long, they don't really know what the very high level is. It's our role to support them to move away from generational swimming to a bit of swimming. more structured and which avoids us having ups and downs depending on which swimmers stand out from the crowd.”
