Jacques Favre, France’s brand new National Technical Director (“DTN”), officially began his functions on April 1, 2015, the eve of the 2015 French Long Course National Championships in Limoges. One of his first moves was to announce the appointment of Fabrice Pellerin, the head coach of Olympic Nice Natation, as Director of the Women’s National Team.
In his new role, Pellerin will collaborate with the club coaches of all the women selected to France’s National Team as they prepare first for Kazan this summer, then for Rio in 2016.
As head coach in Nice, Pellerin has developed the most successful women’s program in France at the moment. His swimmers currently include Charlotte Bonnet, Anna Santamans, Cloé Hache, Marie Wattel, and the Hungarian Evelyn Verraszto, as well as a several more women who are competing in Limoges but are not quite on the medal stand yet. He is probably best known for having guided both Camille Muffat and Yannick Agnel from their early teenage years to Olympic golds in London in 2012.
The following are some snippets from the press conference:
“I think I will be the equivalent of what Romain Barnier is with the men. I’ll be in charge of the coaches who work with the women on the National Team. It’s not a Head Coaching role. We have excellent coaches [all over France] who work with their swimmers all season; they will continue to do so after the National Team is named. It’s more of a collaborative role, one of cooperation among coaches.”
“[The Director of the Women’s Team] is a coach who will be in contact with the other coaches. We will be able to discuss our ideas, confront our difficulties, share our desires, our challenges… and I think this is a good thing.”
“There is a responsibility but it is a shared responsibility. The idea is not to come in with a dogmatic approach, to value one method over another. Rather, it is to send a message to the coaches that everyone, with their sensitivity, their history, and their experience can get to the same result. And the result we are looking for is medals at the international level.”
“We have all the talent we need in France. While it’s true that our women’s program is in development right now, we have a history [in French women’s swimming] of hiding behind big-name talent: Catherine Plewinski, Roxana Maracineanu, Laure Manaudou, Camille Muffat, and I think we need to go further in affirming our competence. I really believe that believing in one’s ability is the key to performance. If we can feel strong individually, everyone in their own clubs, and feel strong when we are together as coaches, then we will overcome the obstacles that hold us back.”
Anna Santamans doesn’t train under Fabrice Pellerin, she’s been coached by Maxime Leutenegger in Nice since 2011.
Bobo, je peux parler en francais mais je vient d’Hong Kong. Avant, j’ai ete nager pour l’equipe d’Hong Kong mais maintenant je prefere un verre du vin contre la natation a cinq heures et demi du matin 😀
In other news – HACKETT 3.46!!
😆
And sorry but I promised for 4 years I post comments on swimswam that I don’t write in French. And I have kept my word since then with between 5000 and 10000 (no idea) comments only in English!
And I believe that my English has a little improved. Hopefully. 🙂
Bobo, Your English was always good, but I have definitely noticed improvement!
And talking about wine, I’m not a normal Frenchman. I hate wine! 😆
I respect not using French. But how can you dislike wine? I fell in love with France ever since my first glass of Haut-Brion and never looked back 😀
Clement Mignon – that’s a new PB for him right? Loaded 100m final. Does Manaudou get automatic selection for the relay?
Yeah I’m pretty sure Mignon had a low 49 PB before (49.12 from this year apparently).
And this is yet another final with between 4 and 6 48.xx swimmers. Its kind of amazing that’s the case since 2008 without even the same swimmers as before when you compare that to the depth of other races…
Logical choice. He trains most of the fastest French girls.
He’s a magician in terms of technique improvement. Best recent example was how he transformed Lotte Friis’ freestyle technique from bad to average plus in only a few months. And we saw the results at world championships in 2013 in Barcelona.
BOBO on that topic did Y. Agnel manage to find back the technique displayed in 2012? I read reports (in French yes! http://galaxienatation.com/bob-bowman-est-il-en-train-de-gacher-agnel/) on the loss of distance per stroke he experienced between 2012 and 2014
Excellent appointment. I have always rated Pellerin and I believe this will only be good for France.
Hkswimmer, are you French?
We would be at least 2 to represent French swimming on swimswam. 🙂
I’m french. I represent french swimming.
Yes. Welcome. It really takes two to defend French swimming on swimswam.
I’ve been following the site since more than a year now and I saw you were one of the only if not the only proud defender of french swimming so I thought I should team up with you and make sure nobody forgets about french swimming.
Same thing SWIMFR, I’ve been lurking on swimswam for a long time now and I always enjoyed Bobo’s always insightful comments on French swimming (or even on other things too).