Olympic champ Yannick Agnel will once again provide commentary in France for coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. That’s according to French newspaper Le Parisien.
State-owned broadcast company ‘France Televisions’ intends to bring back Agnel, the newspaper reports, after he jumped into television commentary during last summer’s World Championships. Agnel was a world swimming superstar in the early portion of the last decade. He won two Olympic golds in London in 2012, including a prestigious 200 free title in a time (1:43.14) that still hasn’t been matched in textile suits. He also provided an iconic 46.7 anchor to the French 4×100 free relay, running down the Americans for gold.
Agnel also starred at the 2013 World Championships, winning the 200 free and 4×100 free relay again. But he struggled the next several years, and after failing to make the 200 free semifinal in Rio, he announced his retirement from the sport. Now in his first Summer Olympics since retirement, Agnel will be back in the public eye, calling the Tokyo swimming events on French television.
Le Parisien also reports that the French television Olympic coverage will begin this year with a podcast titled “Entre-deux,” in which famous athletes tell stories from their careers. That podcast will begin with swimmer Florent Manaudou, the 2012 Olympic champ and 2016 Olympic runner-up in the 50 freestyle.
And the coverage will be better than in the U.S.
Greatest 200 freestyler of all time
could well be!
I miss him :,(
I was in France during the last Olympics and I was generally impressed with the way the broadcaster covered the swimming. The lead commentator was quite knowledgeable about the sport and gave it a bit of colour without going over the top. The experts on the broadcasting panel were Laura Manaudou and Philippe Lucas and they did a pretty good job. I have to admit I didn’t understand everything as I’m not fluent in French.
France Télévision, the french public television company, has some incredible sport journalists in many sports. They are really knowledgable and extremely well prepared for every event. They do extensive research beforehand and it shows. Alexandre Boyon covers swimming, him plus Agnel’s technical knowledge and insider perspective really complement each other very well. I liked the Manaudou/Lucas duo because getting such an accomplished coach’s perspective is great and the dynamic on the set was quite fun. Malia Metella didn’t really add that for me much before that.
During the Athletics worlds last year, their journalist/commentators had a little quiz game after every evening session and they were able to answer some incredible questions such as random podiums from world championships… Read more »
That pic — could be a contender for the World Gurning Championship.
I loooove Yannick Angel in London 2012… whats happened to him since then??
Too much video games, too little sleep he says https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImujvEut6FE (in French)
Bob bowman happened….