France’s Camille Lacourt, whose career has bounced around since nearly breaking World Records in the 50 and 100 meter backstrokes in 2010, has announced that he will spend the next year training in Australia.
In an interview with L’Equipe, he says that he is “looking for new experiences” and that he wants to “be Australian for a year”.
Specifically, he will train with Ian Pope at the Melbourne Vincente Swimming Club. Pope was the Australian Caoch of the Year in 2003 and 2004 for his work with Grant Hackett, Brett Hawke and Michael Klim, among others.
Among the current names of significance at the club include Hayley Baker, a phenomenal and fast-rising junior backstroker, Mack Horton, Andrew Jarvis, and Koti Ngawati. The club sent one swimmer, Samantha Marshall, to the World Championships, and put two, Horton and Jenna Strauch, on the Junior World Championships squad.
Lacourt’s announcement came just days after winning gold at the World Championships in the 50 backstroke individually and as the finals backstroker for the World Champion 400 medley relay.
His announcement mirrors that of American Ryan Lochte, who says that he will spend some time training down under in the next year as well (though Lochte’s trip isn’t expected to be as long, and will be with Denis Cotterell and Miami Swimming).
Lacourt thus leaves the Marseilles club, the most well-known in France, where he has trained under Romain Barnier for five years.
Or he will turn into a pundit to replace the “not very convincing” Bernard on Eurosport…
Are you from France? If yes, you would be the second French swimswam reader after me! 🙂
than there must be only 3 french speaking swimswam fans out here ! LOL
Yes I’m french, I’ve already noticed that I’m not the first one while reading comments ^^
i’m from Argentina, it’s that okay?
Sorry, but I don’t write in French here. It’s a rule I have imposed on myself from the beginning. I try to do some efforts in English.
I don’t see any reason for writing in french
Argentina? Well, that’s almost spain, and spain is almost france, so I guess it’s okay
Aigues Argentina it’s not Spain, Argentina it’s in South America. We share the language that’s it
I know I know, it was a joke
Ervinforthewin is Jean Michel, right?
I would bet so…
I would really like to know if Aussierules and NolotcheFan are the same persona..
He will go surfing every day!
Now we are waiting for the decision of Amaury “hamburgers” “pringles” Leveaux. He wants to leave Fance for his training. I bet on USA. He loves New York but I know there aren’t many swimming clubs there. In my opinion it will be NBAC with Agnel if he wants to work seriously until Rio. I doubt a little about that. He loves nightlife. Something around Miami could interest him. Or the Trojan Swim Club in Los Angeles.
If he wants to go surfing, he picked the wrong australian city. Melbourne is not exactly a surfing city, definitely not in the calibre of Gold Coast, NewCastle, Brisbane, Sydney, or even Adelaide.
Also, with the “four seasons in one day”, Melbourne has the worst weather. But its european nature may appeal to the french. He may go to cafes and sip cafe au lait, though.
“Pringles Leveaux”. Love it.
Oh 90% of french Camilles are girls too
Thank you France. As there are only girl Camilles here , he is already assured of being the top Camille in the nation.
Pope also coached Matt Welch & Massimo Rossellini to stylish success.
I look forward to seeing Lacourt on billboards .