{"id":435114,"date":"2020-06-11T03:16:05","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T10:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=435114"},"modified":"2020-06-11T11:34:34","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T18:34:34","slug":"amaury-leveaux-encore-french-blocks-tremble-in-anticipation-of-trials-tribulations-triumphs-anew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/amaury-leveaux-encore-french-blocks-tremble-in-anticipation-of-trials-tribulations-triumphs-anew\/","title":{"rendered":"Amaury Leveaux Encore – French Blocks Tremble In Anticipation Of Trials, Tribulations & Triumphs Anew (Videos)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last September, French sprint ace Amaury Leveaux<\/strong> was finally getting back to fighting-fit shape after a steady comeback that began in 2018. A five-year break from the pool, a time during which he penned a controversial book and became a father, meant that he had a lot of work to do if he was to have a shot at clearing the high bar he’d set himself:\u00a0Olympic 50m freestyle champion at Tokyo 2020 at the age of 34.<\/p>\n

Enter COVID-19. Postponement. Another year to wait. Not a bad thing, Leveaux may well feel as he returned to pool training this week after weeks of lockdown and dry land work.<\/p>\n

The shunt of seasons not only grants the Frenchman an extra year of preparation and a steadier swim in to French trials and then, all being well, the Games. There’s also this: it adds another line of motivation to Leveaux’s list of ambitions: victory in Tokyo would make him the oldest Olympic swimming champion in history, by a few months.<\/p>\n

At Rio 2016, Anthony Ervin<\/strong> wrote one of the biggest comeback success stories in Olympic history. Joint gold with USA teammate Gary Hall Jr.<\/strong> in the 50m freestyle at Sydney 2000 as a 19-year-old was followed by World titles in the 50 and 100m freestyle a year later in Fukuoka. There were silvers in the 50m freestyle and 4x100m free at Pan Pacific Championships in 2002 – and that’s where his big podium days came to an end … for at least a decade.<\/p>\n

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Amaury Leveaux finding his balance and speed in the pool once more – – Photo Courtesy: Amaury Leveaux – stills from “Dijon Ville
#VLOG01 – Je Prepare les JO de Tokyo 2020″, YouTube<\/p><\/div>\n

Ervin had packed some work in before he made the American cut for the London 2012 Olympic Games, where he finished 6th in the 50m freestyle final and watched the U.S. 4x100m free quartet get a bloody nose in a fight with a French quartet that boasted Leveaux up front and Yannick Agnel<\/strong> firing in the form of his life to deliver Gallic gold.<\/p>\n

On the way to Rio 2016, Ervin penned his memoirs with co-author Constantine Markides<\/strong>. Good timing: in Brazil, Ervin kept defending champion Florent Manaudou<\/strong> at bay \u00a0in the 50m free, felled the rest of the field and, in taking gold, made “the oldest winner of solo gold in the Olympic pool” one of the briefest encounters with a pioneering standard that Michael Phelps<\/strong>, winner of the 200m butterfly and 200m medley that same week, had ever known.<\/p>\n

Ervin was 35 years, two months and eight days old when he celebrated a second record: at 16 years wide, his 2000 and 2016 victories represented the biggest gap between triumph in the same event – or any event – in Olympic swimming. Published by Akashic Books,\u00a0Chasing Water<\/i> <\/a>is a stirring tale very well told and worth the time of any who love swimming – and many beyond that, too.<\/p>\n

His comeback for London having come close (21.65) but not close enough, Ervin’s Mind-the-Gap moment had to wait until Rio, where he set a record likely to stand a while yet. The Tokyo delay now means that Leveaux, by default, is chasing that ‘oldest, dashing-est of dashers in the Olympic pool’ title: he will be 35 years and almost eight months old by the time whoever makes it to the 50m final in Tokyo climbs onto their blocks.<\/p>\n

Pieter Timmers<\/strong> will not be one of them. Like Leveaux, the Belgian silver medallist over 100m free in Rio, returned to training this week but only with a view to fulfilling his last pre-retirement appointment: as part of the International Swimming League’s generation of Pro-Pioneers on education\/training\/racing camp in October-November<\/a>, virus permitting, says founder and funder Konstantin Grigorishin<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Timmers had been hanging on for a last European Championships but when the Budapest event was shunted into 2021<\/a>, the Belgian ace declared “time to move on”. 2020 would have been his swan-song season. COVID-19 did for that, perspective to be found in his country’s sorrow – excluding microstates,\u00a0Belgium is the world’s worst-affected country in terms of the number of deaths per head of population (9,629 deaths from 59,569 registered infections = 831 per million as of this day). The ISL tour will now mark Timmers’ transition to the rest of life.<\/p>\n

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Amaury Leveaux embraces pain for gain – Photo Courtesy: Amaury Leveaux – stills from “Dijon Ville
#VLOG01 – Je Prepare les JO de Tokyo 2020″, YouTube<\/p>\n

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Leveaux is heading in the opposite direction and back into the weave and wave of a\u00a0France Vs USA freestyle sprint rivalry he came out on top of last time round as a member of the French quartet that took revenge on the USA and Jason Lezak<\/strong>‘s monumental bouncing, digging, clawing, self-willing, mind-over-matter, body rolling drubbing<\/a> of Alain Bernard<\/strong> to deliver gold at Beijing 2008.<\/p>\n

Let’s be clear: Leveaux, who may yet make a very useful signing for an ISL team, has a mountain to climb. At the helm of the large club of current-gen’ folk who have swum a long-course 50 free faster than Leveaux: Caeleb Dressel, Florent Manaudou, Ben Proud, Vladimir Morozov, Bruno Fratus<\/strong> \u00a0… a place in the dash final in Tokyo would be an impressive achievement for anyone, Leveaux included.<\/p>\n

Here’s where Leveaux got to at his very best first time round over 50m freestyle:<\/p>\n