Since May 1, he is no longer the DTN of French swimming and has taken office as national technical director of the Canoe-Kayak Federation. Julien Issoulié spent eight years at the head of the technical direction of the French Swimming Federation. While he said he continued his mission after the Paris Games, he finally decided to leave. His decision surprised internally. He explains his choice to leave the FFN.
Julien Issoulié, your departure surprised, why did you decided to finally leave your post?
Julien Issoulié: It was a process in several stages. After the games we were all very tired and we knew that there was going to have the electoral time (the elections at the head of the Federation Editor’s note) even if with us there were not too many surprises (Gilles Sézionale, the only candidate, was re -elected NDLR). We needed everyone to ask and think. In parallel I asked myself how we were going to overcome the departure of Jacco (Verhaeren), what a new dynamic it was going to have to set up. We started to review the organization with Denis Auguin (director of the French teams) and with the other national coaches to try precisely to keep the good balance we had and the good work dynamics of the staff. The second part was to wonder what was missing, where we had to be better. And all this work is not just linked to the organization, it is also linked to the means you can devote and to the more global strategy of valuing swimmers, coaches, etc … and there I admit that I did not see things too much.
When you add to that that in the end, with the elected officials, we did not really have a discussion on the results of the games … It is not bad, but we all agree that we could have done a little better. We are all happy with where we come back to have done this. It’s still good, but there was still room to do better and the possibility of building something more solid for all disciplines. But we never had this discussion. After a while it started to weigh me. In January I thought that in the end, maybe it was up to me to leave my hand to someone else. And to someone else to take this responsibility because I couldn’t see too much the possibilities of moving forward.
The French Swimming Federation was a little too content with what had happened in Paris?
I think it was good for everyone to have made these games. We made medals, we missed some. And in the end, for example, that artistic swimming ends 4th instead of 3, knowing that there will be a big turnover of the team, it is a point of vigilance. What do we have to do, where do we need to invest? In swimming swimming you can be super happy with the medals, but you also know that now there will be a renewal. How will young people, especially those who are in the US, will come back and how are they accompanied by medals?
How is a guy like Maxime (Grousset) we give him an Olympic project, because I am sure he has room for 2028. How do we build that? When you add all these little details, the same in diving, in water polo where you are at the end of a generation. There were still a lot of subjects on which we had to take the time to ask and invest. But I was never really asked how to do it. I feel like it was: “Anyway, they managed to do something, it will continue like that”. And I am not too much what I hoped.
You regret not having been heard by your leaders, they blame you for your departure when you told them at first to stay …
I told them, I stay after the games because I thought there were things to do. But if you don’t see things going in the right direction, afterwards we are all free to be able to do what we want. I was placed by the minister for eight years to do this mission, it was fantastic. If our points of view are no longer exactly aligned, that we no longer have the same ambitions, that we do not necessarily have the same expectations on certain subjects, I believe that there is no point in stubborn. You might as well separate and everyone will do their way in their corner.
Did you expect more ambition from leaders?
I do not know if I expected more ambition, but I expected that the sports project of the disciplines and teams of France take more space in the overall strategy of the federation. And this is not in budgetary terms where it is still in proportion much less than in other federations. I hoped that we could have a slightly larger ambition on the French teams and have a little more means. “
In almost eight years at DTN post, what do you keep in your way?
-We are fortunate to have an exceptional athlete (Léon Marchand) so we can say that it is a bit biased. But we broke the record for the number of finals in the Olympic Games and even largely. So it shows that there is also a density that there has never been at this level. Even if it is not satisfactory because it is not medals, that means that there is still quality among coaches, clubs and athletes to arrive at this level and that there is still work to do. We are all aware of that. I am happy with this sporting level which is found, I am happy that we managed to do it in Olympiad on all disciplines. All have shown that they could be efficient. In a federation that has several sports, it is always complicated to have this balance. When there are good people in the right places, you can get there, without having crazy means it works anyway. Work and good organization pays. I am very happy on a discipline which at the base is not mine that we have managed to federate a fairly large number of actors.
Whether the coaches, staff, scientists who have increased what was done to support sports projects. I am quite proud of this organization. And I see that it moves forward without my presence and that’s good. The system is ready and built so that people are a little independent and organize, which was not necessarily the case a few years ago.
And then there are all the mini successes that we could have in terms of strategies for the high level such as Léon’s apartment (the Toulousain benefited from an apartment rented by the Federation a few meters from Paris La Défense Arena to avoid long back and forth in the Olympic village with its program of charged races editor’s note), like certain optimizations of performance on data analyzes. A lot of little details like that that make this professional experience are quite incredible. It remains a real story and a collective work which for me will remain really engraved in my head. “
What is the legacy of games for swimming for you?
One thing is certain is that people have seen in almost eight years that we could work together. That one could have times of action in common, that one could do internships in common, do competitions together, that the coaches could work together and even work with different athletes and that it works. I think it’s really to keep.
I really believe that it is their ability now to succeed in staying in solidarity and not to fall into unnecessary small quarrels. There will always be, but in any case people do not need to compete to get there, and working together they get there. I hope it can last in time because we saw that it allowed to work in a pleasant environment and still have a path to performance. So not to hurt yourself and see positive things.
Are you surprised by the current situation of the French Swimming Federation which still has no DTN to replace you, and which is in open conflict with the ministry?
I find it a shame to conflict with the ministry because it is still thanks to the ministry that we manage to do lots of things today. The Federation has 64 technical executives, a certain amount of year aid on projects. So even if we can always say that with more it would be better, it is still not trivial and I find that it is a shame to happen to that. And in addition that it becomes public. That there are divergences of points of view, it happens every day and it is also in our work not to always agree. But that it makes an advertisement, noise around that, it is not at all what I hoped. I hoped that the transition would be as easily as possible.
I admit that I imagined that we would have a DTN before my departure. I even imagined being able to work with it to be able to give the information well. So I gave them to Denis (Auguin named DTN interim) who will do the interim, but it’s not the same. I find it a shame because there is not too much time to waste and you have to move forward. There are only three years now to really prepare the Los Angeles Games.
Even if the technical teams are in place, you waste time putting people well aligned on projects. Everyone wonders a little about who will be named, what will be the priorities, do it impact my work? It creates uncertainty that in these environments is never hyper reassuring and hyper comfortable for all actors. We lose a little time and I hope they will find someone very quickly.
You are starting a new mission in a sport, canoeing, which you will discover …
It is quite exciting to start in another federation. I knew that a bit with the passage of water polo to the race swimming where I did not know all the actors. There, it is still very different. I really don’t know anyone, but I still arrive in a federation that has a regular performance culture, which has always had champions. Some champions have become supervisors so there is a soil that is conducive to doing good job. There are still sites like on online race which has a real subject of restructuring to find performance. For slalom, how we can continue to continue what has been well done and can be able to do better. And then there is also everything that is paralympic that I had not really apprehended on swimming and it is quite exciting. It is also a federation that is focused on ecology, the natural environment and everything related to water. It is quite exciting and exciting.
