2015 French Short Course Nationals in Angers to Begin on Thursday

2015 French Short Course National Championships

• Dates: Thursday, November 19 – Sunday, November 22, 2015
• Times: prelims 8:30 am, finals 5:30 pm
• Location: Angers, France (GMT +1, or 6 hours ahead of N.Y., 9 ahead of L.A.)
• Results: Available
• Championship Central

Less than a week after the attacks in Paris, the elite of French swimming is gathering in Angers for their national short course championships. All the major French stars showed up to compete; only Charlotte Bonnet of Nice pulled out at the last minute due to a stomach illness.

In the pre-meet press conference that took place on Wednesday, the swimmers emphasized the need to return to normal after the emotional week that France has been through:

“After the shock and the mourning, we owe it to ourselves to continue on, and to pick ourselves back up again. This French national championship in Angers is a good opportunity to do just that.” – Camille Lacourt, Marseille

“It was a difficult week. But we have a job; we represent the nation, we are elite athletes. We are lucky to wear the colors blue-white-red, and I think we need to lead by example. I know all my teammates believe the same thing. We represent a country, but also a state of mind. We need to show that we won’t stop living. The logo you will see on our caps over the next several days will say it all.” – Fabien Gilot, Marseille

“If we can bring a little happiness to people, and give them something different to think about, that’s what we’ll do.” – Florent Manaudou, Marseille

The four-day meet begins on Thursday and lasts through Sunday. In addition to the members of the French national team (such as Lacourt, Gilot, Manaudou, Jérémy Stravius, and Yannick Agnel), swimmers from the Federations of Algeria, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Senegal, and Tunisia will also compete.