“swimming is king and we collect the crumbs”

In Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées), swimmers from the artistic swimming association do not have places reserved for training. The city does not give them The reason: a conflict between the association and a nautical club, which seems difficult to resolve.

The image is hard to imagine: around ten young girls, in the middle of synchronized swimming training, in the middle of a pool… full of people. However, these are the current conditions for the swimmers in the Tarbes Artistic Swimming Club (NAT). The young association, established 10 months ago, does not have places reserved for its members in the city’s swimming pools.

A complicated situation, which the members condemn in an Instagram video and a petition, shared on May 3. The association asks questions: “Injustice? Favoritism? Neglect and disinterest?” How can we explain this state of affairs, when the club has 40 members and 5 coaches?

In 2023, Anne-Laure Guin, then coach and swimmer at EPSTN (Entente Pyrénées Séméac Tarbes Natation) decides to leave the club and create an association focused only on artistic swimming. “The money from our memberships went to swimming, she says. We wanted to compete, have better equipment and develop.” Together with her, she leads all the former EPSTN students. “This is an administrative and legal conflict between the president of EPSTN and Anne-Laure Guin, assures Thomas Da Costa, sports assistant at Tarbes town hall. And“NAT registered its members, without ensuring that they had places.”

“We asked for slot machines, but the city refused us them, says Anne-Laure Guin. They tell us that there are already two nautical associations in Tarbes, and that they are the ones who own the slot machines. On Saturday, the 5 EPSTN swimmers are alone in half of a large pool, while we are out. At NAT, we are 5 trainers, while they only have one MNS (lifeguard) paid at the pool.”

“All arbitration proceedings are designed not to take away from the public’s gaming, says Thomas Da Costa. We proposed a solution: EPSTN agrees to reinstate the NAT swimmers in their slots, provided that Anne-Laure Guin is not present poolside during training.” That was a month ago and since then the municipal council has assured that NAT has not responded to this inquiry.

Anne-Laure Guin, for her part, emphasizes that NAT is “the only club specializing in synchronized swimming in the Hautes-Pyrénées. It’s a little-known, little-regarded sport. Swimming is king and we collect the crumbs.” But for Thomas Da Costa, “To say artistic swimming is a marginal sport is totally false and defamatory. The petition launched by NAT is nonsense, it is outrageous. Our door remains open, we want to find a solution according to the proposal we presented.”

Anne-Laure Duguin remembers that her swimmers recently participated in the Swim Artistic show in Cahors, where they won “the jury’s special favorite prize, even though we train in very bad conditions”. The club hopes to present a gala in Lourdes soon.