Four months before the Paris Olympics, the Giant Open celebrates the talents of the French swimming team – Libération

2024-03-22 06:50:13

Yvelines is hosting the international meeting organized by the French Swimming Federation this Saturday March 23 and Sunday March 24. An edition in the form of a final warm-up before the Olympic deadline.

Florent Manaudou, Maxime Grousset, Charlotte Bonnet… Before Paris this summer, all these big names in French swimming are meeting in Yvelines this weekend. The Dôme de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines) hosts the final phases of the Giant Open, an international meeting imagined by the French Swimming Federation. The event will decide between the best qualified competitors during the series organized in Nice at the start of the week. This 2024 edition is only the second of this brand new competition that the Federation aims to ultimately anchor in the world swimming calendar. It is also, four months before the Games, a warm-up round for the swimmers, a stage in the preparation which should lead them to the Olympic pools. “May the party be great while waiting for the Games!” proclaims the president of the Federation, Gilles Sezionale, in the press kit sent to Libération.

On the platforms will be lined up almost all the athletes of “our French team which shone last summer”, rejoices Sezionale. A reference to the World Championships in Fukuoka (Japan), where a certain Maxime Grousset left with three charms around his neck, one in gold and two in bronze. On the bill, we also find Mélanie Hénique, very fit during the last World Championships, held a month ago in Qatar, where she won the silver medal in the 50 meter butterfly. Let us also mention David Aubry and Anastasiia Kirpichnikova, who distinguished themselves during the last European Championships, at the end of 2023 in Romania. They had each won two podiums and even two first places for the Franco-Russian Kirpichnikova, while Aubry set the second time in her races.

A big absentee

On the French side, the big absentee ultimately remains the star Léon Marchand. Who studies in Arizona, trains with American technician Bob Bowman and therefore decided to skip international events to devote himself to the American university championship. The best swimmers in the championship will compete from March 27 to 30 in Indianapolis (Indiana), in what Léon Marchand defines as “the most intense swimming competition” in the world. Because this succession of races “requires a lot of energy, and you do not swim only for yourself” but “for the whole team” sent by the university where you are registered, confided the French prodigy on Monday, during an exchange with journalists in which Libération took part.

The United States, moreover, will be represented at the Giant Open in the person of Michael Andrew, relay winner at the Tokyo Games. Among the foreign headliners, there are other champions crowned in Japan, such as the Swiss Jérémy Desplanches and Noè Ponti, both bronze medalists in their respective distances, the 200 meter medley and the 100 meter butterfly.