Florent Manaudou is among the swimmers lining up at the French Elite Championships to book his spot on the team for the World Championships in Budapest.
The six-day meet in Limoges runs from 5-11 April and mirrors the British Championships schedule as trials season gets into full swing.
Manaudou claimed France’s solitary medal at the Tokyo Olympics with silver in the 50 free and, should he beat the selection standard of 22.18, the 31-year-old will seek to add to his four world titles stretching back to Barcelona 2013.
However, with only two years and three months until Paris 2024, the next generation need to continue their trajectories.
Among them are Leon Marchand – exempt from the competition – who heads the 400IM rankings in 4:10.38, backstroke duo Yohann Ndoye Brouard and Mewen Tomac and distance freestyler Sacha Velly.
Analia Pigrée, double medallist at the 2021 European Short-Course Championships, and 17-year-old twins Lucie and Justine Delmas feature among the younger women.
For technical director Julien Issoulié, these French Championships will mark “the start of the Paris 2024 campaign.”
He told news agency AFP:
“In Limoges, we will see the first outlines of the new French team take shape, which only dreams of one thing, to challenge the greatest international swimmers at home in 2024.”
There is a sliding scale of meets with greatest priority for selection given to Limoges followed by the French Elite Winter Championships last December, followed then by the Olympic Games and finally the two FFN Golden Tour meets in Nice and Marseille.
A maximum of 24 swimmers will be selected
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