“In the same way that many people benefited from the cycle to Tokyo, which was longer, this time it ended up being cramped in three years. For me it doesn’t make sense to go there [Paris] without being competitive. After three Olympics, one medal, I’ve had all the Olympic experience, it doesn’t make sense to go there just to be there. I would only go if it were to repay the expectations placed on my result, my legacy, my name”, he told Olympic look.
Still in denial, he even considered a plan B. The Sette Colli Trophy, in Rome, in June, is accepted by World Aquatics as a time limit for the Olympics. He would try to swim this competition, gaining a few more weeks of preparation, and if he made the index there, he could make the team. That’s what he proposed to CBDA, which they didn’t accept.
Fratus can still go to Rome, look for the index, and put pressure on the CBDA, if the two places in the 50m are not filled in the qualifiers. But he already admits that Paris will not be for him. “It’s not in my interest to make the entire selection of the selection revolve around me. One injury after another makes the selection both now and at Sette Colli irrelevant, indifferent.”
And now?
At 34 years old, without the next Olympics, it would be natural for Bruno Fratus to retire. But this is not the plan. The idea is to return to the pool in a few months, after a well-deserved vacation. Married for 12 years to his former swimmer and now coach Michelle Lenhardt, to this day he hasn’t had a honeymoon, for example.
“I need a break from water to let my body breathe. I always bragged about the fact that I didn’t take vacations for a long time, I didn’t take more than five days. So maybe I need to take a few months out of the water and let my body breathe, and so does my head. Every training session I go to just to feel pain, just to not be able to swim, the desire to go back to the pool diminishes.”
