A day after their 2015 Elite National Championships wrapped up in Limoges, the French Federation (FFN) released its official list of athletes selected to represent the Hexagone at the 16th FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia this summer. In addition to the core group of swimmers who have swum for France in international competition over the last couple of Olympic cycles, there are quite a few new names this year.
In particular, there is a large female contingent.The 2015 French Elite Nationals was the most successful showing of the ensemble of French women in recent years, and it shows on the list of invited swimmers; with 15 men and 14 women, the team is as close to parity as it has ever been.
This is great news for French swimming, and especially for Fabrice Pellerin, the newly-appointed director of the French Women’s National Team.
Men
| Swimmer | Team of Record | |
| Yannick AGNEL | 1992 | MULHOUSE ON |
| Joris BOUCHAUT | 1995 | DAUPHINS TOULOUSE OEC |
| Lorys BOURELLY* | 1992 | DAUPHINS TOULOUSE OEC |
| Thomas DAHLIA | 1990 | CN ANTIBES |
| Fabien GILOT | 1984 | CN MARSEILLE |
| Damien JOLY | 1992 | CN ANTIBES |
| Camille LACOURT | 1985 | CN MARSEILLE |
| Grégory MALLET | 1984 | CN MARSEILLE |
| Florent MANAUDOU | 1990 | CN MARSEILLE |
| Mehdy METELLA | 1992 | CN MARSEILLE |
| Clément MIGNON | 1993 | CN MARSEILLE |
| Giacomo PEREZ DORTONA | 1989 | CN MARSEILLE |
| Jordan POTHAIN* | 1994 | NAUTIC CLUB ALP’38 |
| Benjamin STASIULIS | 1986 | CN MARSEILLE |
| Jérémy STRAVIUS | 1988 | AMIENS METROPOLE NAT. |
Women
| Swimmer | Team of Record | |
| Coralie BALMY | 1987 | MULHOUSE ON |
| Charlotte BONNET | 1995 | OLYMPIC NICE NATATION |
| Mathilde CINI | 1994 | VALENCE TRIATHLON |
| Fanny DEBERGHES* | 1994 | ASPTT MONTPELLIER |
| Ophélie-Cyrielle ETIENNE* | 1990 | LILLE MÉTROPOLE NATATION |
| Margaux FABRE* | 1992 | MONTAUBAN NATATION |
| Béryl GASTALDELLO | 1995 | CN MARSEILLE |
| Lara GRANGEON | 1991 | CN CALÉDONIENS |
| Cloé HACHE* | 1997 | OLYMPIC NICE NATATION |
| Mélanie HENIQUE | 1992 | AMIENS METROPOLE NAT. |
| Fantine LESAFFRE | 1994 | MULHOUSE ON |
| Anouchka MARTIN* | 1993 | CN MARSEILLE |
| Anna SANTAMANS | 1993 | OLYMPIC NICE NATATION |
| Marie WATTEL | 1997 | OLYMPIC NICE NATATION |
*selected for relays
For French swimmer Camille Lacourt, the FFN’s selection had a glaring hole; as he wrote on his Facebook page:
“Here is the official list of qualifiers for the World Championships in Kazan. With one major person missing, Frédérick Bousquet…After an operation a year ago and 15 months of convalescence, you decided to come back to swim in Kazan. It was a surrealistic goal for a guy who couldn’t lift his arm over his head even six months ago…But you worked hard, you are a professional, passionate, perseverant, headstrong, crazy, and above all, you believed in it and made us believe, too. You finished silver medalist in the 50 fly, a couple of tenths from the prize…And you weren’t able to defend your chances in the 50 free because of food poisoning. It’s a tough break. For you, for us, for French swimming. We will miss you, my friend. I will never forget this lesson in courage and selflessness. Know that the people close to you, your angel and your friends, we are all proud of you.”
Not an April fool.
The French federeration wants to make the world cup stage in Chartres post world championships in long course.
Funny for a short course world cup. 🙂
The French men’s team has a good amount of older swimmers(born in the 80s). I hate saying that is old! USA and Brazil are the same. Compared to AUS, CHN, and Japan.
The proportion of “older” swimmers in the mens team is probably inflated by the fact that the main strength is freestyle sprinters where the age of maturity is typically older.
The other races outside of the backstroke duo provided younger French champion, they just haven’t all qualified for Kazan…
This selection shows that we are almost completely out of the era of the 2008 olympics swimmers in France.
With Bousquet not qualified and all the retirements, I guess only Gilot and Balmy are still there and if they are important for the relays, they will not be the main focus for the individual events.
Yup. Your Beijing holdover on the men’s side is providing depth… whereas the USA will likely be lining up 2 of them (Grevers and Adrian) at finals… alongside a guy from Athens (Ervin) 🙁
Add to that everyone seems hopeful Phelps gets to tag along that’d be another one.
We have not done a good job transitioning to the next wave of sprinter men.
Gold Medal Mel and Braden, I hope this colorful spreadsheet presentation becomes the standard that all your reporters will use when reporting on Championship Trials throughout the world! Anne did a great job; give that woman a raise! 😉
Also, those were classy words of support from Lacourt to Bousquet!