Triple World Swimming Champion Talks What's Unseen Before Every Race: 'There Are Lots of Tricks'
Article by Roxana Fleşeru – Published Monday, 03 November 2025 22:43 / Updated Monday, 03 November 2025 22:44
Maxime Grousset (26 years old), double world champion this year in Singapore, made some interesting revelations during a show broadcast on the L'Équipe channel, about what happens before each race.
France's Maxime Grousset, world champion in the 50m and 100m butterfly in Singapore this year, spoke about the things less visible to spectators when it comes to swimming races.
Defeated in Budapest in 2022, in the 100 m freestyle, the Frenchman has focused more on the butterfly than the backstroke in recent years. Thus, he climbed the first step of the world podium in 2023 in the 100 m butterfly, and in 2025 in the 50 and 100 m butterfly.
10 world medalsin the Olympic pool, Maxime Grousset has three gold, two silver and five bronze medals.
Grousset was a guest on a show broadcast on the L'Équipe channel, where he talked about swimming and the moments that are less known to the general public.
Maxime Grousset (left of the image) and David Popovici on the podium at the WC 2022 in Budapest with Joshua Liendo
“In the call room, before the final, I'm in my own world. I don't say hello to anyone. Some say hello, I don't. It's a time when the noise is much lower.
I concentrate, I repeat my race. I love this moment. Usually at this point I know if I'm going to swim fast or not.
There is also a power relationship that sets in with the other swimmers”Grousset revealed.
Maxime Grousset: “Some do it to show that they are the strongest”
He added: “Before jumping into the pool I beat my chest to warm up, but some do it harder than others to show that they are the strongest. Some talk very loudly. There are many tricks“.
Maxime Grousset is among the few world champions this year who will take part in the European Short Course Championships, which will take place between December 2 and 7 in Poland.
5 European medalsMaxime Grousset has one gold, one silver and three bronze medals in short swimming. In the 50-man pool, I collected four awards – two gold and two silver
The Frenchman is the reigning European champion of the 100 m freestyle event, a medal won in 2023 in the Otopeni basin.
Alessandro Miressi, Maxime Grousset and David Popovici on the European podium in 2023 in Otopeni
