Is he rewatching the film of this final where he only missed a few hundredths of a second to get on an Olympic podium? Two months later his fourth place in the 200 meter backstroke final at the Paris Olympics, Mewen Tomac confide that it is “It’s hard not to think about it.” However, the swimmer, originally from Evreux and resident of the Amiens Métropole Natation club for eight years, also believes “having given everything” during this final and not having “too many regrets.”
The French and then world championships in the viewfinder
Mewen Tomac turns to other objectives. First there will be the French short course championships end of October in Montpellier, then the Worlds, also on 25 meters in Budapest at the end of the year. These are two competitions that he was initially supposed to miss, due to his planned departure this fall around the University of California at Berkeley. But the American dream will have to wait a little longer. “I had to get a response from the University League to see if I could come but they still haven’t given an answer”says the swimmer.
The United States in January?
Mewen Tomac therefore started her distance learning courses but this turned out to be “complicated to manage”he continues. “I canceled the classes and so I can’t go. I decided to stay in France until January and see if I can register for the January session.” More this setback does not bother Mewen Tomac too much. He immediately found his base by following his trainer, Mathieu Neuillet who left Amiens this summer to head the swimming section of the National Institute of Sport and Performance (INSEP) in Paris.
“In any case, what I wanted was to change environment. I had been in the same place, in Amiens, for 8 years. I wanted to see something else and that’s what’s happening at INSEP.” In Paris Mewen Tomac also found another Amiens figure. Mathieu Neuillet leads the INSEP swimming group in tandem with Michel Chrétien who will retire in a year.