GRANGEON de VILLELE Lara

General
COACHING CHANGES
In September 2019 she decided to stop swimming at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance [INSEP] in Paris, France, and began training under Damien Cattin-Vidal at the Vikings de Rouen club. "I learnt a lot of things at INSEP, and I trained to perform at my best. But I was not listened to there, and that was what I was really looking for." In July 2020, after the Olympic Games in Tokyo were postponed, she changed coach again and joined Philippe Lucas' training group based in Montpellier. She had previously worked with Lucas in 2018. "I'm still 100% focused on the Games. I want to do all I can to perform there and I think that Philippe is the ideal person for me to achieve that." (france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr, 16 Dec 2019; lequipe.fr, 28 Jul 2020)

SWITCH TO OPEN WATER
She competed in the pool at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, but in 2016 began competing in open water swimming. "I've always loved to swim [in the pool], but after two Olympic Games, I felt like I had done that discipline and wanted to try something else. I've always liked swimming in open water, so I said, 'Let's give it a go'." (lecrampon.com, 03 Feb 2019; swimswam.com, 16 Jul 2019)

LEAVING NEW CALEDONIA
She was born in Noumea, New Caledonia, but left at age 14 to pursue her swimming career. "It was not easy to leave my family, my friends. But afterwards I knew that it was the only solution to compete at a high level. My parents always supported me in my choices and New Caledonia helped me too. I really wanted to progress and go as far as I could in swimming and I knew it could only happen if I gave myself the means. For that I had to leave because at the time there was no setup there for sport studies. Now there is a centre in New Caledonia and the government there is making a lot of effort for New Caledonian sport." (lecrampon.com, 03 Feb 2019)

FURTHER STUDIES
Following her studies at the University of Perpignan in France, she has also earned a business administration degree from the EDHEC Business School. She also holds a master's degree in management of sports organisations and services from Aix-Marseille University. (LinkedIn profile, 01 May 2021; edhec.edu, 26 Jul 2016)