One of the top open water swimmers on the planet will be missing from the World Championships next month due to an internal dispute with his national swimming federation.
The French Swimming Federation (FFN) suspended Marc-Antoine Olivier until August 31 in a statement released on Friday, rendering the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist unable to compete at either the World Championships in Fukuoka in July or the Open Water World Cup stop in Paris in early August.
Olivier told SwimSwam he plans to appeal the three-month suspension and provide his own comments on the situation soon.
The FFN cited three incidents over the past couple years in which the 26-year-old Antoine-Olivier acted inappropriately toward French team staff, but the press release offered only a few details. The behavior allegedly began at a World Cup stop in Abu Dhabi in December of 2021, and he was fined by a disciplinary board as a result.
Then at April’s 2023 Martinique Open, where Olivier qualified for the World Championships with a 5km win and a runner-up finish in the 10km, the FFN said it warned him again for “virulent remarks against the coaching in front of organizers of the event. The final straw was when he supposedly committed the same offense just 15 days later at the Open Water World Cup stop in Soma Bay, Egypt, where he took silver in both the 10km and mixed 4×1500 relay events. Antoine-Olivier is currently ranked fifth in the World Cup rankings this year with 1,000 points.
“The selection criteria for the French swimming teams are indeed based on the performances achieved, but also on the respect of values and principles of collective functioning,” the FFN wrote. “Recent incidents involving Marc-Antoine Olivier have unfortunately led us to make this decision.”
The FFN clarified that this suspension does not rule him out for the Paris 2024 Olympics next summer. After Olivier’s suspension is over in September, the FFN said discussion will take place about “preparation for next season, which will be critical in qualifying for the Paris Olympic Games.” There will be an LCM World Championships next February in Doha, Qatar, which will end just 159 days before the Paris 2024 Olympics begin.
“We hope it will make him click,” French technical director Julien Issoulie said. “He is really gifted, but we cannot accept everything. It’s not performance at any price. We can’t dust under the rug because it’s a medal chance.”
Olivier captured a bronze medal in the 10km at the Rio 2016 Olympics and placed sixth in the same event at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics. At the World Championships, he has collected one individual gold medal (5km in 2017), one silver (10km in 2019), and one bronze (10km in 2017). At last year’s World Championships, he missed the 10km podium by just a few tenths of a second with a 1:51:11.5, right behind Germany’s Florian Wellbrock (1:51:11.2). In 2020, SwimSwam awarded Olivier with the Open Water Swimmer of the Year honor.
He probably misgendered a woman with a beard.
If your going to ban someone for speech you should disclose what they said.
He swam this am so they must have changed their ruling!??
One can only hope that the crime fits the punishment. I know the superstars of the sport are very much influential on young aspiring athlete’s actions and attitudes, and certain values and ideals must be imparted on the rest of the team and younger athletes looking on, but man this is severe punishment for an athlete that very much could have booked his ticket to Paris 2024 at these upcoming world champs. Fingers crossed that there was not political hierarchy bad blood, that has altered this athlete’s immediate future that he has worked so hard for – for so many years.
Certainly keen to hear more of this story.
I agree with FNN. Verbal abuse shouldn’t be tolerated
Got to know this just as I was watching “The Redeem Team” on Netflix: Quote: “Its all about being part of a team and service something bigger “
How bad could it be? Asking genuinely. Idk its like ur tryna make it in a career where u lowkey need to win gold or u arent gonna feed a family (esp open water theres gotta be less $$ in it than pool swimmin right?)
Been seeing so much bs on this site about terrible greedy inept governing bodies over the years its really hard for me to not take an athletes side as long as nobody’s getting hurt or cheating or whatever.
FFN, Like so many other swimming sanctioning organizations, protect itself not the swimmers, not the athletes. He spoke his mind and they can’t handle it. The state of the FFN in france is reprehensible.
Mind sharing the issues with FFN and what he spoke out against?