Two medals at the Taranto 2026 Mediterranean Games in bi-fins swimming. Here is a performance that makes Albane Déage the most rewarded person from the French Riviera at this competition. A meeting with someone who juggles between chiropractic, fins swimming and sport lifesaving.
If the two bronze medals won by Albane Déage at the 2026 Mediterranean Games are a source of admiration, the discipline in which she won them may be surprising.
Indeed, it is with fins on her feet that the young woman from Nice, 24 years old, is now making the most of her potential. Late August 2026 in Taranto during the Mediterranean Games, she was aiming for two medals in bi-fins swimming. Mission accomplished with the bronze won in the 200 and 400 metres.
Licensed at the Spondyle Club in Antibes in bi-fins swimming, she is also a member of the Cercle des Nageurs de Cannes in sport lifesaving. She who came from traditional swimming switched at 22 years old to lesser-known disciplines to find pleasure in the water again.
After years spent in pools accumulating lengths, weariness eventually took over: “I was fed up, and at the same time I think I was in the beginning stages of depression. I didn’t realize it but my parents saw that I was no longer enjoying it, that I was forcing myself to go swimming.”
It must be said that swimming is a sport known for its demands in terms of training. “I used to train twice a day back then, two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening every day. It’s very demanding, you swim, you swim, you swim, and in the end the results don’t necessarily follow in competition”, she confides, looking relieved to no longer live this grueling routine.
Sport lifesaving as a compass
After this difficult period, it was impossible for Albane Déage to leave the aquatic environment she has known since she was six years old. Licensed in Toulouse during her studies, she rediscovered the joy of training thanks to a swimmer friend who practiced sport lifesaving. “Discovering lifesaving was my turning point. I realized that I had been swimming for a year just to swim like many people do by the end, and I was really sick of it.”
Since 2023, she has been practicing sport lifesaving as her main activity. In sport lifesaving, six events take place in a pool or in open water. Events with obstacles, dummies to rescue, or fins on feet. Enough to delight many former swimmers tired of traditional swimming: “There are many of us in this situation, who switched from swimming to lifesaving all with the same story, we were fed up and wanted to move on to something more fun.”
From sport lifesaving, Albane Déage continued her exploration of unusual aquatic disciplines until she arrived, in 2025, to test fins swimming, a good complement to sport lifesaving: “I progressed a lot in lifesaving thanks to fins swimming. From the start it was also a discipline that I really liked and in which I performed very quickly.”
A few training sessions in bi-fins swimming, two World Cup rounds, a top 2 at the French championships, qualification for the European championships and then two bronze medals at the Taranto Mediterranean Games, here in summary is the impressive rapid rise of Albane Déage to the highest level of bi-fins swimming.
A balanced daily life
Today Albane Déage is happy in her daily life. A chiropractor in an office in Biot, she places her professional life as a priority and wants to advance in chiropractic, even opening her own practice in the future. “Sport in my life today remains a bonus, because unfortunately for us we cannot make a living from fins swimming or sport lifesaving. I prefer to put at the center what will allow me to live rather than sport”, she declares.
Today Albane Déage’s motto is pleasure. As long as her professional environment allows her to practice sport lifesaving and fins swimming, she will keep this pace.
If she is selected, Albane Déage’s next major event will take place this winter, at the sport lifesaving world championships in South Africa. In the meantime, she is delighted to have a platform to share her experience: “I know that many young swimmers can relate to my situation, almost getting sick of swimming. I’m happy to be able to talk about it, to be able to tell them that there are ways to have fun in the water and to compete at the highest level in other ways.”
NicePremium is a free, independent local news outlet.
Help us keep going by supporting our work from €5 per month.
