The swimmers of the French team, carried by Léon Marchand and Maxime Grousset, won four individual titles during the Fukuoka Worlds, a first in the history of French Swimming.
Until then, the harvest of gold medals remained blocked at three for the Blues, who often relied on the relays to conquer their planetary titles.
In January 1998 in Australia, 22-year-old Roxana Maracineanu offered French swimming the first title in its history, in the 200 meter backstroke. During these World Championships, France won three other medals, in silver, thanks to Franck Esposito (200 meters butterfly), Jean-Christophe Sarnin (200 meters breaststroke) and Xavier Marchand (200 meters medley), who will be exceeded 25 years later by Léon Marchand, his son.
After exploding in the eyes of the whole world thanks to her Olympic title in the 400 meter freestyle at the Athens Olympics, Laure Manaudou assumes her status at the Montreal Worlds by winning the planetary title there.
Solenne Figuès won the 200 meter freestyle and, for the first time, France won two world titles in the same competition. In their wake, Malia Metella won silver in the 100 meter freestyle and Hugues Duboscq bronze in the 100 meter breaststroke.
Two years later, Laure Manaudou is even more dominating with two titles (the 200 and 400 meters freestyle) and two silver medals (the 800 meters freestyle and the 100 meters backstroke).
In Shanghai, Camille Lacourt and Jérémy Stravius ??could not decide: the two swimmers finished at the same time in the 100 meters backstroke and were tied for first. That year, the French delegation looked great and brought back ten medals in total, a record unmatched to date.
If Florent Manaudou had surprised everyone by being crowned Olympic champion in London in the 50 meter freestyle, three years later at the Worlds, everyone was warned. However, he did it again in Kazan, to obtain his first individual world crown. He will do the same on the 50 meter butterfly, just like Camille Lacourt on the 50 meter backstroke, two disciplines which are however not on the program of the Olympic Games.
During these Russian Worlds, the men’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay also climbed to the top step of the podium, with a relay from the inevitable Florent Manaudou.
In Fukuoka, Léon Marchand unquestionably asserts himself as a phenomenon. Of the three races in which he competed individually (the 200m medley, the 400m medley, the 200m butterfly), he went for gold, with the added bonus of Michael Phelps’ world record on the 400 meter medley.
Maxime Grousset followed the example, and after two bronze medals, he won his first planetary coronation on Saturday, bringing to four the number of individual titles at these world championships for the Blues, another record.
