Olympic gold medalists Natalie Coughlin, Florent Manaudou and Sarah Sjostrom will be among those participating in the Tahiti Swimming Experience beginning next week.
The event, which runs August 5-16, will be focused on water sport education for both locals and tourists, and the highlight will be the Super Sprint, an open race in which anyone can sign up to race against Olympic athletes. The event will include qualification and then a final on Sunday, Oct. 9.
The event will be run by Stéphane Debaere, previously a medalist at the Pacific Games while racing for French Polynesia, and he considers this event to be a “dream come true,” according to an interview with Tahihi Infos.
“The peculiarity of my team is to be able to bring together champions from various nationality: France, Sweden, Netherlands and USA. In addition to their respective laudatory charts (World, European, Commonwealth, National), they were all Olympic medalists or the ultimate for any sport. In parallel, they all have a great reputation and are clearly appreciated by the general public. Finally, they are all friendly, accessible, especially in the starting blocks to discover our Fenua and meet Polynesians. “
In addition to Coughlin, Manaudou and Sjostrom, other top athletes participating include the Netherlands’ Femke Heemskerk and French swimmers Camille Lacourt and Frederick Bousquet.
Read more here and here. Translations from French via Google Translate.
It’s looks like event already took place over a month ago. Any news from it?