France has experienced a bit of a revival as a swimming power over the last two years following the appointment of Jacco Verhaeren as the National Performance Director, with the emergence of superstar Leon Marchand playing a primary role in that effort.
Verhaeren, the former National Team coach at Swimming Australia, took over the French Federation in June 2021, and after France was left with just two medals at the 2019 World Championships and one at the Tokyo Olympics, they’ve had back-to-back top-five finishes on the medal table at the biggest international meet of the year.
The French team won two gold and eight total medals at the 2022 World Championships, ranking fifth on the medal table, and this past summer, they won four gold and two bronze to rank fourth among all nations.
Marchand won three gold medals, sweeping the men’s 200 fly, 200 IM and 400 IM, while Maxime Grousset had an individual breakout by winning the men’s 100 fly and earning a pair of bronze medals in the 100 free and 50 fly.
Below, listen to Verhaeren speak on the presence of Marchand on the National Team and how that elevates everyone else on the roster, along with the importance of relay qualification, getting more swimmers experience at the World Championships (and alleviating the strict standards we’ve seen in the past), and using the Worlds meets a dress rehearsal for Paris 2024.
