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NBC Sports
a day ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Leon Marchand narrows his World Swimming Championships focus with world record in sight
Since the Paris Olympics, Léon Marchand has surfed in Australia and been asked for a picture while dining in Greece. Back in France, he estimated his fame is 10 times greater than anywhere else he's been. Marchand, who won four swimming gold medals last summer, returned to his training base of Austin, Texas, in late March to prepare for the World Championships. The meet begins this weekend in Singapore (live daily on Peacock). The 23-year-old from Toulouse initially entered the same four events he won in Paris: the 200m and 400m individual medleys, the 200m breaststroke and the 200m butterfly. On Monday, French media reported that Marchand dropped the 200m breast and 200m fly, his two closest races in Paris (the two Olympic finals were about 1 hour, 45 minutes apart). Nick Zaccardi, 'It's a choice we made because we are in a post-Olympic year, and he has never had the opportunity to present a 200m medley without having a race before or after the same day,' Marchand's France-based coach Nicolas Castel said in comments reported by France Info that Castel reposted on social media, according to a translation. 'He wanted to test this isolated 200m medley and see what he was capable of.' The 200m fly final is the day before the 200m IM final. The 200m breast semis are in the same session as the 200m IM final. Dropping them would mean Marchand has no individual races before the 200m IM. He could be capable of breaking the world record: 1:54.00, set by Ryan Lochte at the 2011 World Championships. In Paris, Marchand swam 1:54.06, missing the record by six hundredths of a second. If he can take it down, Marchand will become the second man to own both individual medley world records in the last 30 years. The other: Michael Phelps, whose 400m IM record Marchand broke in 2023 after Phelps held it for 21 years. 'I have a lot of things to improve,' Marchand said in the spring, reflecting on the Paris Olympics as a whole. 'It's not over. I also did a lot of mistakes, so I can do better for sure.' Marchand has said the four years of work leading into Paris were the hard part. Swimming at his home Games, despite the pressure, was like spending the money he banked over thousands of training hours, to take a metaphor that his Austin-based coach, Bob Bowman, adopted in his years guiding Phelps. So, how much has Marchand deposited since Paris that he can withdraw in Singapore? Bowman said he's been swimming near his top level in practice. 'I'm very happy with how he's been since he's come back,' Bowman said. 'He's been perfectly normal. He's tried hard. He's made the improvements.' Marchand took six weeks of vacation after the Olympics, according to L'Equipe. Then on Nov. 1, he broke Lochte's 200m IM world record for 25-meter short course pools, which are used less frequently than the 50-meter pools at most major meets like the Olympics. He swam and surfed in Australia over three months early this year (during which he cracked a rib, missing a week) before settling back down in Austin. Marchand has yet to swim at a high-stakes meet in 2025, unlike Americans who had to qualify through trials. So there is little race data to gauge how close he is to summer 2024 form. 'I think that his year has unfolded — other than the injuries — it's kind of been what he wanted,' Bowman said. 'I think he needed a mental break. I think he needed to go away to Australia to get out of France for a while. And then when he was ready to come back, he's done very well in Texas.'
Euractiv
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Euractiv
New Caledonia's leaders reach ‘historic' deal on French territory's future
Political leaders in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia reached an agreement about the archipelago's future on Saturday. This includes the creation of a State of New Caledonia, which will be written into the French Constitution. The agreement allows residents of the territory to hold both French and New Caledonian nationality. It also sets out financial understandings with Paris to benefit the islands, located in the Pacific Ocean to the East of Australia. French Prime Minister François Bayrou, who has made overseas territories a priority since taking office last year, described it as a "historic agreement". Negotiations began in early July to draw up a shared vision for New Caledonia's future that will bridge deep divisions between the Indigenous Kanak population, who want more independence from Paris, and descendants of French settlers. In a post on X, Bayrou hailed the State of New Caledonia and paid tribute to the negotiators and specifically Manuel Valls, the French overseas minister. A statement by the two parties quoted by FranceInfo described the agreement as the beginning of a "new era of stability by formally bringing New Caledonia into the French Republic". Voting rights will be granted "to a large number of Caledonians and their partners," the text adds. In May 2024, unrest erupted in New Caledonia after the French parliament proposed a constitutional revision of New Caledonia's electoral roll, which the archipelago's pro-independence groups saw as a move to undermine their political weight. The violence left 14 dead, including 11 Kanaks, and caused an estimated €2 billion in damage. Sonia Backes, the leader of the loyalists – descendants of French settlers – said that while the compromise "would not fully satisfy anyone" it provides a way out of "the spiral of violence, uncertainty and destruction". "New Caledonian nationality takes nothing away from our membership of the Republic or our French nationality," she added. The agreement still needs to be ratified by Caledonians with a local referendum.
Local France
10-07-2025
- Health
- Local France
'The risk is real': France sees rise in cases of chikungunya fever
So far this year, mainland France has recorded 25 ' cas autochtones ' - or locally-transmitted cases of the disease, found in people who have not travelled to an area where the infection is common, out of 761 total cases. Doctors in France have warned of the risks of the virus, which causes fever and joint point and can in rare cases lead to more serious complications. Deaths are rare in countries that have access to good healthcare facilities. Chikungunya is generally described as a tropical disease and is common in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands. It can, however, be spread by the bite of tiger mosquito - an Asian import that is now commonly found throughout southern and central France, and as far north as Paris. READ ALSO : MAP: Tiger mosquitoes reach northern France✎ The French Indian Ocean island of La Réunion is currently in the grip of a chikungunya epidemic that has caused 200,000 cases of the virus and 20 deaths since the start of the year. Advertisement Experts at the public health body Santé Public France say that while most of the cases in mainland France are in people who have recently travelled to La Réunion - or other areas where chikungunya is common - a rising number of cases are being diagnosed in people who have not recently left France. Cases have been recorded in Corsica and the southern Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region before, but this year has also seen a case in the cooler, northern region of Grand Est. Anna-Bella Failloux, an entomologist at the Institut Pasteur, told France Info : "Such an early start to the mosquito's activity season and such a high number of cases had never been observed before. "We didn't expect to detect a locally transmitted case in the Grand Est." Eric d'Ortenzio, an epidemiologist at the Inserm institute, added: "The risk is real. "We need to monitor the situation and tell the population to protect themselves, by using mosquito repellents - the only means of preventing this disease." Since May 1st, Santé Publique France has been tracking cases of the virus, especially those that are the result of local transmission. "For the time being, the situation is not worrying, but we must remain vigilant," said Anna-Bella Failloux. What is chikungunya and how to protect against it? The virus is spread by the bites of infected mosquitoes, especially the tiger mosquito. Symptoms start four to eight days after the bite and include fever, joint and muscle pain, headache, nausea and fatigue. Most people will recover without treatment within a week, but complications can occur, especially in people who have ongoing health conditions. Advertisement There is no specific treatment for chikungunya. A vaccine does exist, but it has been linked with various side effects, and as a result French health authorities are no longer recommending it for the general population - anyone in a high-risk group should speak to their doctor. The best way to prevent it is to avoid mosquito bites by wearing mosquito repellent during the summer months - tiger mosquitoes (the smaller, black and white striped ones) are active throughout the day. They are found in almost all of France apart from the northern coast. READ ALSO : How to prevent the spread of tiger mosquitoes in France✎
MTV Lebanon
08-07-2025
- MTV Lebanon
Bee attack leaves three in critical condition and dozens injured in France
Three people in a French town remain in a "critical but stable condition" following an unusual bee attack at the weekend which left 24 passersby injured, the mayor of Aurillac said on Monday. Twenty-four people were hurt and three were rushed to hospital in critical condition when hundreds of bees suddenly attacked people in the central-southern town on Sunday morning. According to local media, one of them was a 78-year-old woman who was stung 25 times and had to be resuscitated after a cardiorespiratory arrest. Police and firefighters fenced off the area and a beekeeper was called in to smoke out the bees - a safe way to calm the insects. A local man called Andrée said he witnessed "very panicked people" trying to bat off the bees. "I could tell they were being attacked by something but I couldn't figure out what," he told French media. The mayor of Aurillac, Pierre Mathonier, was reported as saying that Asian hornets threatening a beehive may have been the catalyst for the attack. But Christian Carrier, the president of the regional beekeepers' union, was sceptical. He told France Info that bees generally avoid leaving their colonies altogether in the presence of Asian hornets. Instead, he said that the unusual incident may have been due to the bee colony becoming too large for its beehive and becoming "overactive" when the beekeeper handled it. "It may be that [the bees] didn't have enough space and that their colony had no intention of swarming. This can trigger strong aggression," Mr Carrier said.
08-07-2025
- General
A Paris man will be decorated for saving children from fire
PARIS -- A man who saved several people including children and babies from a fire last week in Paris while balancing on a narrow ledge will be decorated for his courage. Fousseynou Cissé is making headlines in France after risking his life to help those trapped in a top-floor apartment located in a northern district of Paris. Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Monday that he would be awarding Cissé a medal 'in recognition of his courage and dedication.' 'This medal recognizes republican courage that commands admiration,' Nunez said. According to local media, two families were trapped by the fire on Saturday and took refuge in a flat on the top floor. When Cissé realized there was a fire, he decided to leave the building to protect himself, his wife and child. 'As I was leaving, (my neighbor) called me over and told me that there were people trapped upstairs,' he told France Info. Cissé went to the neighboring apartment, climbed out of the window, and stood on a railing linking the two apartments, 20 meters (65 feet) from the void, in order to evacuate the victims trapped by the toxic fumes. Cissé then evacuated children who were handed over through a window by their mothers, passing them to the neighbor in an adjacent apartment. He helped the children over the ledge before helping the two mothers reach safety. 'It wasn't calculated; it was instinct: 'We've got to go'. So I jumped in to help,' he said. In 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron lauded as a hero a migrant from Mali who scaled an apartment building to save a child dangling from a balcony, and rewarded the young man's bravery with an offer of French citizenship and a job as a firefighter. The 39-year-old Cissé, who reportedly works as a receptionist in secondary schools and does not have French citizenship but holds a residence permit. 'If you're not a French national, you won't get hired,' he said. Asked by France Info what he might wish for as a reward after his heroic gesture, he replied that he hoped 'it might loosen things up, and that things would settle down" so that he could be hired by the Paris town hall.
