INTRODUCTION: Performance trends of French swimmers were assessed before and after the lockdown associated with the first anti-COVID-19 policies. METHODS: Individual best performances were collected for all events at the French national championships from 2000 to 2020. Yearly proportions of swimmers who improved, stagnated, or regressed in performances were assessed compared to their previous year performances. RESULTS: In 2020, the proportion of swimmers with performance regression has significantly increased (33% vs 17% in 2019). Women showed a higher proportion of performance regression (41%) than men (26%, p < 0.0001) in 2020. Only 39% of women and 53% of men experienced progression in 2020 (vs 60.8 ± 3.7 % and 66.7 ± 5.2% respectively in the previous years). Between 2005 and 2020, only for the 2008-2009 championships, the coefficient of performmance regresion doesn`t increase with age. Consequently, the 2010 championship highlight a coefficient of athletes with performance regression higher than previous year equivalent to the regression coefficient in 2020. Long-distance events showed higher regression (36.2 ± 0.5% for 400-800-1500m races) than short-distance ones (32.1 ± 3.2% for 50-100-200m events). Breaststroke events also showed higher regression (42.4%) than other styles (30.5 ± 2.1%). Younger swimmers more often improved their performance than older ones (61.9 ± 8.5% for swimmers under 18 vs 20.0 ± 10.8% for those over 25). CONCLUSION: A high proportion of swimmers experienced performance regression during the 2020 French national championships. A higher impact was observed among female, long-distance and breastroke swimmers. Eight weeks of lockdown without training may have led to poorer swimming performances.
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