Editorial content for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships is sponsored by FINIS, a longtime partner of Swimming World and leading innovator of suits, goggles and equipment. France Emerging as Major Medal Threat in Men’s Medley Relay For a decade, France became a major power player in the men’s 400 freestyle relay, winning a medal at eight consecutive international competitions, including an Olympic gold (2012) and a world title (2013). The country had not won an Olympic swimming relay medal since 1952 — and only two ever — in 2008 when the team of Amaury Leveaux, Fabien Gilot, Fred Bousquet and Alain Bernard took second behind the Americans in one of the all-time great races. Four years later, Leveaux, Gilot, Clement Lefert and Yannick Agnel captured Olympic gold in a come-from-behind win over the United States. But the French streak of excellence ended after the 2016 Olympics, and the country has yet to return to the Olympic or World Championships podium in any men’s relay since. In fact, France did not even enter a 400 free relay quartet at the most recent Worlds. Now, however, it’s the men’s medley relay that has not-so-sneaky potential entering next month’s global championships, with enough speed present in each of the 100-meter events to give the traditional powers a real challenge. The only French sprinter to win a medal at last year’s World Championships was 24-year-old Maxime Grousset, who took silver behind David Popovici in the 100 freestyle and bronze behind Ben Proud and Michael Andrew in the 50 free. At last week’s French Championships, Grousset won the 100 free in 47.62, which currently ranks as the fourth-fastest time in the world, and he took second in the 50 free in 21.78. But he saved the best for last as he finished the meet with a 50.61 100 fly, his best time by more than a second, the No. 2 time in the world this year and 12th all-time. Grousset anchored France’s medley relay to a fifth-place finish at Worlds last year, but after this latest effort, the best possible quartet this year would have Grousset swimming fly. That would leave freestyle duties to Florent Manaudou, the 2012 Olympic champion in the 50 free who posted his best long course meet in years last week. He went 21.56 in the 50 free prelims before a 21.62 at night, and in the 100 free heats, he swam a time of 48.12 for his fastest time in seven years (he scratched the final). The backstroke would likely belong to Mewen Tomac, the French champion in the event in a solid time of 52.87. Breaststroke, meanwhile, looks like a potential issue with the top French time of last week belonging to Clement Bidard at 1:00.65, more than two seconds behind the flat-start bests of the breaststrokers from Italy, the United States and Great Britain. It was the breaststroke leg that doomed France’s medal chances last year as Antoine Viquerat split 1:00.34, the only swimmer above the one-minute barrier in the final. Enter Leon Marchand, the uber-versatile medley star set up to chase another huge medal haul at next month’s World Championships in Fukuoka. Marchand handled the butterfly leg last year, but now, with Tomac, Grousset and Manaudou in place, Marchand can swim breaststroke. In March, Marchand posted the fastest breaststroke splits in history as part of Arizona State University’s 200 and 400-yard medley relays at the NCAA Championships. And Marchand’s breaststroke is certainly firing right now after he went 2:06.59 to become the fourth-fastest swimmer ever in the 200-meter breast. If Marchand can split 58-high or even 59-low on a relay, which seems likely, France is instantly a medal favorite, probably still behind Italy and the Americans but ahead of teams from Britain, with Adam Peaty still out, and Australia. As French fans learned during a prolific decade of sprint freestyle success, building an internationally successful relay requires four really strong legs and the ability to swim up to the challenge on the particular day. That’s a tough level to achieve, let alone sustain, but France has found the pieces to head to Fukuoka with a real shot.
Excellent analysis. This event will be very close, and there are no obvious winners.
Would you put them clearly ahead of Australia? With estimated relay splits based on flat times
Tomac 52.9 vs Cooper 53.4
Marchand 59.0 vs ZSC 59.0
Grousset 50.1 vs Temple 50.8
Manaudou 47.7 vs Chalmers 46.5
That’s exactly even