Les bons plans de Laetitia Perez

At the age of twenty, she loves frolicking in the water. The Swiss record holder for the 50m butterfly in the big pool and the 100m butterfly in the small pool, the native of Lausanne has learnt to love her city.

Butterfly or dolphin, whatever. For Laetitia Perez, the terminology matters little. At the age of twenty, the Lausannoise has mastered the most spectacular of strokes. This mastery has won her numerous medals at national level; ‘numerous’ because Laetitia is unable to remember the exact number. “The first was in 2005, in Lausanne, for the Swiss championships,” she ventures. “I came second twice, in the 50m and 100m backstroke.”

2005 was also the year of a change in the career of the young woman. “It’s started at the Macolin national training centre. I stayed there for two years, from age 15 to 17. A sort of trigger mechanism. I worked with Gennadi Touretski, the former coach of the Olympic champion Aleksandr Popov. He has 48 world records to his name. There was also François Willen, Touretski’s assistant, with whom I got on well. When the centre moved to Tessin, I followed François.” When she came back to Macolin, the young swimmers were prepared for the Beijing Games. “I was ill on the day of the heats. I watched the Games on television.”

While numerous sports stars would have been down in the dumps at not being able to take part in the biggest sporting event, Laetitia Perez is philosophical: “As a young girl, my dream was to participate in the World Championships. My brother Adrien wanted to go to the Games. He was able to participate in the relay in Beijing. He lived his dream.” One year later, it was Laetitia’s turn to find herself on the starting blocks at a large international event. “I took part in the World Championships last year in Rome,” she recalls. “It was the first Sunday. First day, first race. We were in the pool straight away. For my second race, the 50m butterfly, I stressed out. It was sunny, which contrasted with the dark in the call room. The others were calm, but I couldn’t properly appreciate the moment.”