During this weekend’s French Championships, Manon Venturi won four gold medals and one bronze medal. The teenager, trained at the Fun Beluga in Bastia, is carrying out an extraordinary journey that will take her to Quebec in August to compete in the world championships.
“Good good!” The performance of Manon Venturi, and of her partner, Angeline Bertinelli, did not leave indifferent the commentator of the site of the National Swimming Federation, which broadcasts the French Junior National 1 and Elite championships.
For almost two hours, at the edge of the Gilbert Bozon swimming pool in Tours, the two swimmers of the Pays d’Aix Natation club had been able to gauge the competition. Duets from all over France, and also from Spain, the Czech Republic or Belgium. The level has been raised.
But Manon and her partner, when they finally appeared before the judges, didn’t seem more worried than that. They stayed focused on their goal. Victory.
“Fantastic”, “fast”, “precise”, “clean”, “in symbiosis”, “a lot of agility”, “a demonstration of technique”… Right from the start, their duet arouses enthusiastic comments in the stands, where there are spectators, but also competitors, and opposing personnel. A cowardly FFN member, with an admiring sigh, “The length of the figure is breathtaking. When are they breathing?”.
The judges share the general enthusiasm. Vince Manon Venturi and Angeline Bertinelli, with a remarkable score of 80.0667. And a gold medal around his neck. One again. Over the weekend, Manon took part in five events, solo, duo and team. Result: 4 gold medals and 1 bronze medal. This is called a full box.
Very quickly, I knew I was in my place.
After the race, Manon went to the airport. This Easter Monday she returned to Corsica, with her parents, for a week’s holiday, before leaving for an internship with the French team. She and she is determined to take a break: “normally I still train a bit when I’m on vacation, but there I have a doubt”recognizes the Bastiaise. “I just got out of the competition and I really need to cut, I need it! I still intended to get in the water once but I’m not so sure anymore…”
The holidays, for the fifteen year old, are an opportunity to return to an almost normal life, for a handful of days.
In 2019 Manon made the decision to leave the Annonciade swimming pool, where she had discovered artistic swimming within the circle. Funny belugafor the renowned Pays d’Aix Natation club, an incubator that trained the French elite in the discipline.
But, in top-level sport, the desire for excellence is often accompanied by sacrifices. It was therefore necessary to leave the paternal home, heading to the boarding school. Manon is just twelve years old. “Throughout the summer before leaving, I asked myself many questions… When I arrived in Aix, they flew away. The first days were difficult, it’s true, I had to orient myself again. I no longer had my mum who prepared breakfast for me every morning. But very soon I realized that I was in my place”.
When we ask Manon if she realizes what an extraordinary journey she is on, she shrugs. “Not really, in fact. I’m in one of the best clubs in France, and it’s normal to have medals, everyone has them, the level of requirements is very high, so it seems to be the minimum!” The adolescent thinks for a few moments before specifying : “in fact it’s when I get home, when I talk about it with my parents, or other people outside, that I realize it”.
When we got on the podium at the European Championships, I cried!
Manon Venturi
Outside, Manon doesn’t have to deal with it as much as other girls her age. Her daily life can feel like a bubble at times. She attends CREPS classes every day, until 1 pm, and then, after a quick snack, she goes to the swimming pool, where she trains between half past three and five. “And every other week, we also train on the weekend. That represents between 25 and 40 hours of swimming per week”.
Manon never complains about these sustained rhythms. “When you see friends hanging out, having fun, it’s a little difficult at first. But you get used to it quickly, and then when you win a competition, it doesn’t matter anymore, you understand why we are doing all this”. When asked what was the hardest part of her career, Bastiaise doesn’t think much about it: “It was last summer. We did two seasons in a row, non-stop, and we had to continue training in Aix. But in the end it was worth it”.
At the end of this summer away from Corsica, a bronze medal awaited him, conquered at the European Championships in September in Rijeka, Croatia. “I was so proud! I couldn’t believe it when we got on the podium. I cried and everything…” recalls Manon, still moved.
Today Bastiaise is living her dream. “My idol, when I started, at the age of 6, was Virginie Dedieu, the three times world champion… Today I meet her every day, she is the president of the Aix club. And my coach is the one who coached her when she was an Olympic medalist”, says Manon with a big smile .
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When asked if she hopes to follow in his footsteps, she is careful not to admit it. Out of modesty or out of superstition. But many observers are promising a spectacular sporting career for Manon Venturi, who joined the French squad last year. She with her, in the corner of her head, the 2024 Paris Olympics. She will be 18 years old. But one thing at a time.
Upcoming stages, of dimensions, the European championships in Alicante, in June, and the world championships, in Quebec, at the end of August.
