Camille Muffat

 Camille Muffat was traveling back of the bus sat staring into the glass of the window as he followed the meandering route through the streets of the old industrial park Straford. His head was covered with the hood of tracksuit and occasionally hinted a gesture of fatigue, or boredom. As if she weighed empty happens to the Olympic experience, the absolute success. As if harden the confusion that takes over the mind vanished once the regime of self, the order of repetitions, formulas, pain routines which are the mainstay of athletes. Camille left the London Aquatic Center completely alone.

Nobody hit upon discovering that the girl who drew the flip flops was the queen of France, swimmer who greeted Francois Hollande on his official visit, proposed for the Legion of Honor. Went unnoticed in the fun bus. Fatigue was reflected by his gaunt face, pale skin of both live immersed in chlorinated water, indoors, in most years of his childhood and all the years of his adolescence. Passed in August 2012, would soon be 22 and had just reached his dream. The gold medal in the 400 free, silver in the 200m and bronze in the relay. A surprise for most in the world of high competition.

"Almost all had doubts," recalled Fred Vergnoux Tuesday, the French coach who prepared Mireia Belmonte during the London Games. "She was not the favorite. But in the two years preceding the championship she did an absolutely incredible effort to prepare by the freestyle events. His trainer, Fabrice Pellerin, knew adjust the tuning perfectly. Partial 400 (1m 56s at 200) and 800 (4m 04s in 400) were amazing two months before the Games. "
Half-life training in Nice, his city of birth, along with Pellerin, bore fruit. With little infrastructure, his club, Olympic Nice Natation, shared pool with the City, which occupied the streets with children and elderly. She dragged the group Pellerin with his energy, his constancy. In full day of glory, willingness to work earned him the National nickname: Madame 100%.

Muffat won gold by 32 hundredths of a second to American Allison Schmitt. On the way he passed his own limits and then we could not return. Consider win gold in Rio 2016 would have been an even greater effort. More and better trained than they had done before, overcome what is probably the best swimmer of all time, the American Katie Ledecky, while fighting the inevitable. Wear a body that is oxidized and natural psychic rejection and familiar routines, to and traveled roads that have lost all their seductive appeal, are insurmountable obstacles. There never was Olympic champions over 25 years in middle-distance tests.