2024 FRENCH ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, June 16 – Friday, June 21
- Chartres, France
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet
- Entry List
- Results
- Live Stream
- Prelims: Day 1 |Day 2 |Day 3 |Day 4
- Finals: Day 1 |Day 2 |Day 3 |Day 4
This morning, there were just five events at the 2024 French Elite Championships. It’s the penultimate day, and tomorrow represents swimmers’ last chance to make an impression. However, some opted not to wait til tomorrow and put up some strong swims this morning.
In the women’s 200 fly, Lara Grangeon de Villele posted the top time by over a second and a half as she cruised in the wall in a time of 2:10.33. The New Caldenoian has competed in both open water and in the pool at the Olympics and has a personal best of 2:07.87 in this event. With the Olympic Qualifying time set at 2:08.43, Grangon-de Villele will need to get back down to near her PB to make the team in this event.
Florent Manaudou and Maxime Grousset set themselves up for a barn burner tonight in the men’s 50. Manaudou, who has won a medal in this event at the last three Olympics, gold in 2012, and silver in 2016 and 2021, will look to punch his ticket to Paris to make it four straight medals.
This morning, the French star stopped the clock at a speedy 21.52 to take the top seed tonight. Manaudou is tied as the 6th fastest performer ever in the event, courtesy of his 21.19 from the 2015 Worlds. The 21.52 he swam this morning appears to be his fastest time since 2016 and was .03 faster than his silver medal-winning time in Tokyo.
Behind Manaudou, Grousset put in a strong performance to touch second in 21.66. Grousset has a PB of 21.57, and his performance this morning appears to be his second-fastest swim ever. Both are well under the 21.96 OQT, so it just remains to be seen how much faster they can go tonight.
There will be a surprising name in the center lane tonight in the men’s 200 back, as Antoine Herlem posted the top time of 1:58.33. He’s situated just ahead of Yohann Ndoye-Brouard and Mewen Tomac, and it’ll be interesting to see if he can make it a three-way race tonight as the two more experienced swimmers will look to move past him,
Other Events:
- Women’s 50 Back: Mary-Ambre Moluh posted the fastest time this morning, stopping the clock in 27.82, just ahead of Analia Pigree’s 27.89
- Women’s 800 Free: Lisa Pou posted the fastest time this morning as she stopped the clock in 8:49.29, Pou had represented France before, but now swims for Monaco.
After watching the video on his IG, it’s clear he completely cruised at the end. Just for context, in the interview after the 50, he said: “I felt really good and took it easy after 30 meters. I thought I’d go 21.9, so I’m really happy with the outcome.” Then he added: “I don’t want to go 21.0 here and become the favorite for Paris with all the pressure the media will put on me. I’d rather go 21.3 and be more relaxed.”
Going 21.0 might be a stretch, but it seems like the gorilla still has plenty to give at 18:13 this evening.
Apparently he’s lost about 7kg of mass in the last month as part of his taper. Can’t wait to watch the finals later, allez les gars!
Bro is on his Anthony Ervin arc
My favorite IG swimming follow.
I mean, aside from the training content, he’s just very, very nice to look at…
🤨🤨
My glorious pookie bear Flo Manaudou❤️
Does anyone have the video?
It’s on his instagram
A comment in the European Championships thread suggests to look at Manaudou’s instagram. Apparently he shut it down at the end.
Swim swam writers must be working overtime with all these fast meets going on!
Yeah dude. The team is amazing. They’re carrying this load. I’m spending like 90% of my time fighting off administrators and other credentialed media, so they’re doing all the hard work.
well done guys , amazing work !! 🥰
fighting of media? why?