2023-05-15 05:00:00
At 28, swimmer Charlotte Bonnet, now trained by the emblematic Philippe Lucas, is reinventing herself in breaststroke. A “breath of oxygen” which might be beneficial to the French team at the Paris Olympics next year.
Between the rain and the cold of the first day and the strong gusts of the second, the Mare Nostrum international meeting in Canet-en-Roussillon did not offer conditions conducive to records this weekend. In any case, it was not really Charlotte Bonnet’s priority, in the middle of a period of work one month from the French Championships in Rennes (June 11-16) and a little over two months from the Fukuoka World Championships in Japan (23 -July 30).
“An overdose of the crawl”
The 2018 European champion in the 200m freestyle, a safe bet in French swimming for a good ten years, has above all taken advantage of the Mediterranean meeting to continue to develop her new versatility. After having devoted herself almost exclusively to the crawl since the beginning of her career, she turned last year to the breaststroke, a stroke with very different technical requirements.
“She had a barrier in her head, an overdose of the crawl”, explains Philippe Lucas, whom she joined in 2021 in Martigues following having been coached for a long time by Fabrice Pellerin in Nice. The “click” came at the European Championships in Rome in August 2022, when Bonnet, to the surprise of many, was lined up in breaststroke in the women’s 4x100m medley silver medal relay, a French record at the key (3’56”36).
She has continued on this path since and the times have quickly followed, to the point of seizing in March the national record for the 100m breaststroke (1’07”76) held since 2011 by Sophie de Ronchi (1’07”97) . The neo-brewer remains far from the best specialists in the world (2 to 3 seconds over 100 meters), but she might be an interesting relay option at the Paris Olympics while France lacks density in this swim.
“It was a nice surprise for everyone, even for her, last year at the European Championships,” comments Jacco Verhaeren, director of the French teams. “It’s very important for us because we don’t have many breaststroke swimmers”. “This versatility is beautiful to see. This is the lot of good swimmers, ”continues the former Dutch coach Pieter van den Hoogenband, one of the architects of the current renewal of tricolor swimming. “She has also found pleasure and, for now, that’s the most important thing.”
World minimum objective during the French championships
After considering ending her career the day following the disappointing Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Bonnet, still licensed in Nice, is living a second youth in her new routine and new environment, with Philippe Lucas. “It’s a breath of fresh air for her,” said Laure Manaudou’s former mentor. “She was always fulfilled, but when the deadline came, especially in the 200m crawl, it was terrible in her head. She had the feeling of going to the slaughterhouse. She was going through things that are not pleasant.
“The event, you have to dominate it, not suffer it,” he adds. “From there, stop (…) The crawl is over”. The proof, Bonnet will try at the French Championships to achieve the minima in the 50, 100, 200 m breaststroke and 200 m medley.
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