The national 25-meter pool competition held until Sunday at the Angelotti swimming pool in Montpellier was only a warm-up before the long-course event from June 14 to 19, 2025.
This Sunday, late in the evening, the Angelotti Olympic swimming pool was finally put back in order. The posters have been removed, the removable wall demarcating the 25 meters has been stored on the ceiling in the location provided for this purpose. The players in the French championship took leave after four days of competition.
If this national competition, the first after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, will not go down in the annals of French swimming, it took place to perfection thanks to the organizing teams. Every day, the public was there in the stands of the Hérault enclosure, one of the most beautiful swimming pools in France.
Montpellier, “without stress or pressure”
“Montpellier is a city that knows how to host major events, we were in an establishment conducive to hosting this type of competition, explains Julien Issoulé, national technical director of the French swimming federation. Coming here is reassuring, the swimmers are not very far from the hotels, there are trams to get around, the Metropolis knows how to organize. For us, it's comfortable, without stress or pressure.”
In the announced absence of Léon Marchand and at the last minute of Florent Manaudou, this championship lacked a little spice in the water. The fact remains that the swimmers present came to collect national medals, and for the best of them qualifications for the world championships in Budapest from December 10 to 15, 2024.
In this game, the Caledonian Maxime Grousset was the best with six crowns won. Marseille's Béryl Gastaldello also made an impression with titles in the 100m freestyle, 100m medley, 100m backstroke and 50m butterfly. “Despite the absence of these two stars, we can note that swimming attracts people, estimates Philippe Jamet, president of 3Muc swimming, one of the local organizing clubs. The Olympic Games effect has something to do with it. It’s not going to stop there.”
With Léon, “the party will be even more beautiful”
For the Hérault capital, it was a sort of warm-up before the organization at the same location of the French 50-meter pool championships, from June 14 to 19, 2025, with the announced presence of King Léon. “We had a good trial run, notes the DTN of the FFN. Everyone started differently, not with the same tension, nor the same requirement. The presence of Léon Marchand in June? It will change things for the media who will have work (smile). For us, it doesn't change much. Léon, when he is in these conditions, does what he has to do to qualify for the Worlds, it is an obligatory passing competition with the aim of becoming world champion again. We're just going to make sure that the swimmers are in good conditions to prepare, to swim, to perform and to recover while playing the game of journalists and the public. This is also when they can inspire young people.”
In eight months, the atmosphere will be completely different. Every day, some 2,000 spectators will fill the bays of the Olympic swimming pool. All this to see the quadruple Olympic champion in his works. “The party will be even more beautiful, concludes Philippe Jamet. We have already experienced great moments here. I wonder if we are not going to get closer to the madness that was there when Alain Bernard broke the world record in the 100m freestyle in 2009 and when Frédérick Bousquet imitated him in the 50m freestyle a few days later. “
