Fouesnant swimmer Yann Le Goff dreams of the Olympic Games

Yann Le Goff, 20, learned to swim almost from birth. With a father and two sisters who were competitive swimmers, and a mother who worked as a lifeguard at Balneida, the Fouesnant pool, it was only natural that he would turn to the sport.

“Basically, we all learned to swim so we could go to the Glenan Islands,” recalls the young athlete. He quickly joined Quimper’s Union Quimper Nation and began performing at the age of 10. He quickly established himself among the greatest swimmers and has won every title from the departmental championship to the French Swimming Championships in 2019, where he finished second in the 100m and 200m breaststroke. He then switched to crawling and joined Rennes after a spell at Brest.

In June 2023, he took part in the French Elite Championship and finished sixth, which allowed him to qualify for the European Championships in Dublin in the under-23 category. He finished second in this competition, which allowed him to take part for the first time in the preparation course, which took place in early January 2024 in the Canary Islands, ahead of the French Championships, which will take place in Chartres from 16 to 21 June. with perhaps a spot at the Olympics.

“There can always be a surprise”

This course in Tenerife included some of the greatest French swimmers, notably Charlotte Bonnet and Maxime Grousset. He is training to set the fastest time in the 200m freestyle. “To qualify individually for the Olympics, I have to clock 1:46” 26 and be one of the first two French swimmers in the 200m freestyle at the French Championships. Only the first five of the French Championships will take part in the 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay, not counting the reserves. In France, there are only about ten of us who can claim to be in the top five, but there can always be a surprise,” admitted the tall 1m 90in young man, who is trained by Mathieu Bourban, Camille Lacour’s former coach.

“We met in the docks of Rennes 4 years ago,” says Yann Le Goff, who is currently taking a gap year before continuing his studies at IUT to possibly pursue naval engineering.