Reigning 50 Free Bronze Medalist Maxime Grousset Scratches Event to Focus on 100 Fly

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

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Reigning bronze medalist Maxime Grousset is skipping the 50-meter freestyle at this year’s World Championships to focus on the 100 butterfly, which are inconveniently scheduled back-to-back at this meet.

The men’s 100 fly and 50 free semifinals on Friday night are separated by just one event, the women’s 200 backstroke. The same two sprint events conflicted last year, and Grousset opted to swim only the 50 free.

The 24-year-old Frenchman tied for the fourth qualifying spot in Friday morning’s 100 fly prelims with a time of 51.00, just about half an hour before no-showing the 50 free. Grousset came into Worlds with the eighth-best time globally this season in the 50 free (21.78), just a couple tenths off his bronze medal time from last year (personal-best 21.57). But he apparently likes his medal chances better in the 100 fly after posting a huge lifetime best of 50.61 last month, which shaved over a second off his previous best from prelims that morning.

Grousset was also fresh off a bronze medal on Thursday night in the 100 free (47.42) as well as a bronze in the 50 fly on Monday.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics next summer, Grousset will face a similar predicament, thought it won’t be quite as difficult for his 50 free/100 fly double. The men’s 50 free Olympic final will fall on the same night as the 100 fly semifinals.