Legendary Olympians return to Nice

Medal winners Yannick Agnel, Camille Muffat, Clément Lefert and Charlotte Bonnet stand proud after a very successful games (photo : Twitter.com/YannickAgnel)

Camille Muffat, Yannick Agnel, Clément Lefert and Charlotte Bonnet ... these are the names of the Nice-trained swimmers who raked in seven medals during the London 2012 Olympics. This evening, Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi will applaud the swimmers during a very special welcome home ceremony.

The festivities will begin at 6.30pm when the swimmers will be paraded down the Promenade des Anglais on a double decker bus until they arrive at l'espace Jacques Cotta, just in front of the Théâtre de Verdure. Here, there will be a huge projection screen, retracing the steps the swimmers took on their road to success in London. The team will be given the chance to meet the public and the mayor will publicly congratulate and thank the swimmers for all that they have done for the city. To make sure the celebrations go out with a bang, the night sky will be lit up with a firework display dedicated to the champions at 10pm.

No doubt the stars of the show will be Yannick Agnel, who won two gold medals and one silver, and Camille Muffat who collected a fine array of three medals, one of each colour. Nevertheless, at just 17 years of age, Charlotte Bonnet is the one to watch after her terrific performance in the women's 800 metre relay, where the team won bronze. Equally, Clement Léfert must be recognised as an Olympian of epic proportions after he battled it out alongside Agnel to win gold in the men's 400 metre relay.

Tonight promises to be an evening brimming with atmosphere as the hype and buzz of the London 2012 Olympics comes back to Nice with a swimming team dripping with medals.

Edward Hetherington