Yeosu (South Korea) (AFP)

Brutally blown in 2016, Aurélie Muller's unfulfilled quest for Olympic glory is reviving with the 10-kilometer open water swimming World Championships, gateway to the 2020 Olympic Games, on Sunday in Yeosu, South Korea.

Before rubbing shoulders, the double champion of the planetary title had to reinstate his body to "hurt himself". After having kept the world crown of the 10 km - and having matched the money of the 5 km and gold relay mixed team - in the summer of 2017 in Hungary, Muller has slowed down the pace of time. a year to focus on his dietary studies.

"It's been two years since I did not really work like I did in the year of the Games, it's a long time, after Rio, I took a two-month vacation with the remains of the work I've done. I did, I won quite quietly at the Worlds 2017. The next season, I swam only once a day (instead of two) and I took full advantage last September, "she recounted in mid-April.

"My body has a little lost the notion of work, to hurt itself, it has forgotten," she is impatient then.

- No regrets -

However, the 29-year-old Lorraine regrets "not at all" to have temporarily put the soft pedal. On the contrary.

"Not so long ago, I said happily that I made that choice, it did me a lot of good physically, mentally ... Otherwise, I would not have held "she says.

When she resumes training at full speed in September, still under the leadership of Philippe Lucas in Montpellier, but in a group that has become denser, Muller speaks the language the first months.

"The hardness of training has increased, which has been even more complicated (to manage) for me after my lightened year," she says, "I started again very hard, my body was not used to it anymore."

2019 begins as painfully. "I thought that January, February, March, it would roll like before but, in fact, no, I was inside, my body did not respond as I wanted, I did not do the sessions, the times I I did it before, I could not find my marks, the good feelings, "Muller describes. His cervicals are involved, "a twinge between two vertebrae, a little osteoarthritis", which forces him to shorten an internship. Not in his habits and likely to multiply his questions.

"Forcibly, when you're hurt, you ask yourself more questions: am I going too hard, not enough?", She illustrates.

- At the Olympics with a top 10 -

Year in, year out, however, Muller does what it takes to qualify for the 2019 World Cup qualifiers for the 2020 Olympic Games (top 10 in the World Cup in Abu Dhabi in early November and top 2 French in the European Cup in Eilat end of March).

And a fifth place at the end of a "very good race" in the World Cup in Seychelles in mid-May, in which she has "taken the lead" and where it has "missed only the last 500-1000 meters" , then an exhausting but probing three-week course in Sierra Nevada (Spain) later, here it is "really reassured", she assured AFP.

Before diving into the waters of southwestern Korea, Muller has very clear ideas: first and foremost, pocket a ticket to Tokyo next summer. Even if a podium "really put in confidence for the next year", she admits.

For the Olympic qualification, the rule of the game is simple: to rank among the top ten of the 10 km (departure at 01:00 am French time). The other committed French, Lara Grangeon, will have the same goal. The men's round, with Marc-Antoine Olivier, Olympic bronze medalist in 2016, and David Aubry, will come on Tuesday.

And beyond the hunt for Tokyo sesame on 10 km - the only Olympic distance in the discipline - the Blues open water ambition to replay Yeosu fireworks (4 titles, 6 medals) they had illuminated Lake Balaton two years ago.

© 2019 AFP