His impressive time made him the man to beat. After the 50m butterfly semifinals on Sunday and his time of 22.61 seconds, the ninth fastest in history, Maxime Grousset knew all eyes were on him. He was also well aware he would be the last swimmer called for the final on Monday, July 28, at the Sports Hub Aquatic Center in Singapore. “When you’re announced last, it’s good. Everyone is waiting for you, because you’re the ‘boss.’ Then you have to live up to it,” he said, on the eve of his first major event at the World Swimming Championships.
In just 24 hours, he had not changed, his eyes sparkling, his smile radiant. The mustache he sported at the French Championships in southern Montpellier in June was gone – in swimming, every hair can be an enemy of performance – but not his dynamism. For over a month, Grousset had been riding a positive wave, and the New Caledonian made the most of it by winning the world title in the 50m butterfly (22.48 seconds), ahead of Switzerland’s Noé Ponti (22.51 seconds) and Italy’s Thomas Ceccon (22.67 seconds).
This time, his status as favorite, based on the heats and semifinals, did not faze him. At the Paris Olympic Games, almost exactly a year ago, it was a different story. The stakes, the pressure, the crowd… Normally relaxed, Grousset lost in his best stroke and missed out on a spot on the Olympic podium, despite strong ambitions in both the 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle. The bronze medal he won with his teammates in the 4 × 100m medley relay slightly improved the overall outcome.
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