For swimmers Maxime Grousset and Pauline Mahieu, getting their way back to the top!
Thursday, 7 August, 2025
Maxime Grousset, supported by Caisse d’Epargne Ile-de-France, and Pauline Mahieu, accompanied by Banque Populaire du Sud, came back to top form at the recent World Swimming Championships in Singapore, less than a year after their disappointments at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Grousset made a splash in the Singapore pool
Maxime Grousset is the other standout French swimmer (along with Léon Marchand). With his four medals in Singapore, including two world titles, Maxime became the most highly decorated French athlete competing in World Championships. When he joined his teammates on the podium of the 4x100m medley relay, the 26-year-old swimmer claimed his 10th world medal in long course competitions: three gold (two in the 100m butterfly in 2023 and 2025, one in the 50m butterfly in 2025), two silver (in the 100m freestyle in 2022 and in the 4x100m medley relay in 2024) and five bronze medals.
That’s quite a list of achievements! But the two world titles won in 2025 in the 50m and 100m butterfly are certainly the most impressive. First, from a sporting perspective: only two swimmers so far have ever managed to win two gold medals in the same World Championships. But this historic record is only part of the story. The championships in Singapore gave the New Caledonian swimmer an opportunity to dispel an enormous sense of frustration. It’s true that he won a fine bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics relay but he was also, and above all, looking to win medals in individual events. He was deeply disappointed with his performance in the 100m butterfly (5th place) and 100m freestyle (7th place).
A hard stroke of misfortune that was all the more bitter as it happened in front of his home crowd! But it’s in moments like these that champions show their true mettle. While ignoring his past underperformance, Maxime Grousset looked to the future, making marginal changes to his physical preparation, cutting out a few training sessions. And he simply moved on, keeping his feelings to himself. And, one year later, he put up a brilliant performance in Singapore in his favorite event, the butterfly, which he dominates so completely thanks to his phenomenal strength. After his victory in the 50m, he was completely liberated and went on to win the world title in the 100m, and setting a new European record of 49.62 seconds to top it all. A remarkable achievement! And a few minutes later, he won the bronze medal in the mixed relay, this time in the crawl… A clear demonstration of his “revenge,” as he put it himself, for his Olympic year, which is now definitely something in the past.
Pauline Mahieu’s exemplary comeback
Pauline Mahieu has followed a similar path. A year after what she also considers a failure, she had a very successful World Championships, finishing 6th in the 100m backstroke final. Perhaps even more than Maxime, Pauline struggled deeply in the aftermath of the 2024 Paris Olympics where she was eliminated in the semifinals of the 200m backstroke and failed to qualify for the 100m backstroke event. It was a difficult period to get through, a moment of true depression that athletes frequently experience, especially in such a tough and demanding sport as swimming.
After a period of treatment and time away from the pool, Pauline, supported by Banque Populaire du Sud, gradually made her comeback: first to swimming, then to competing; she regained her motivation, her pleasure in swimming, and her good results. At the French Championships in Montpellier, she won two French titles, beating her personal best in the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 59.13 seconds and repeating the feat in the 200-meter backstroke with a time of 2 minutes 8 seconds. She qualified for the World Championships and, in Singapore, she reached the final after a tense swim-off against a Chinese competitor. “I was so hungry for success,” she explains on the French Swimming Federation’s website, “and that’s what I don’t have enough of, at times. Fear and worry sometimes overwhelm the hunger and the desire to win. Tonight, I was free of fear; I was only filled with the desire to beat her and make it to the final!” It was a tremendous show of resilience, and she went on to take an impressive 6th place in the final.
That’s the beauty of sport, and one of the life lessons it teaches us: when you fall down, just get back up on your feet and try again!