Below Deck’s Solene Favreau Shows Off Competitive Swimming Skills in a Recent Episode

We have seen a number of reality television stars boast about their prior swimming careers. Sometimes, it has been legit. Other times, the tales were a bit too tall.

That’s why it caught my eye on a recent episode of the hit water-themed reality television series Below Deck when one of the crew members, while celebrating a day off, started swimming butterfly in a party pool.

Not just splashing around, but swimming legitimate, capable, butterfly (while wearing a dress. Obligatory).

That led me to do some digging on a possible swimming career for 27-year-old Solene Favreau from France, and it turns out, she was a competitive swimmer. Not one with any national or international acclaim, but a legitimate competitive swimmer.

The SwimRankings database, which is the most complete database for swimming in Europe, lists her last meet as coming in 2012, when she would have been around 15.

Her results are respectable. At 15, she swam 36.82 in the 50 meter backstroke, 1:18.12 in the 100 meter backstroke, 2:46.89 in the 200 meter backstroke, and at 14 swam 33.90 in the 50 meter freestyle.

She even, yes, has some butterfly swims – clocking a 40.57 in the 50 fly in short course meters at 14.

Favreau, who is also an alum of Love Island France, doesn’t discuss her swimming on the show, but she does show off her abilities, which can be seen in the segment below. Viewer beware, the video is a bit PG-13, and is also very heavy on cringe. There are several clips of her swimming, like a swimmer, but the butterfly is at the end, if you want to judge.