The 20-year-old was part of the history-making women’s team who matched their nation’s best-ever Olympic Team Event performance in the sport, with fourth, last summer.

The 2023 European Games champion, who also competed as part of the Olympic duet alongside team-mate Anastasia Bayandina, will compete in both disciplines at the season-opening World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup in the French capital.

The competition, which runs from 28 February to 2 March, will be the first major event for the best artistic swimmers on the planet since the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“Paris 2024 was magical from start to finish,” Lunel tells World Aquatics. “Between the opening and closing ceremonies I only have good memories of the exceptional support from the public, it was crazy, and it was an incredible, enriching experience.

“(Now) I’m really looking forward to competing again and it’s really cool to be able to do it again in front of our audience. They are always there (to support) and that gives us a lot of energy.”

With the Aquatics Centre in St. Denis undergoing planned post-Games redevelopment work, the athletes will return to the 1924 Olympic venue, Piscine Georges Vallerey, which was used as a training based during last summer’s Games.

From the Paris Olympic Games To Paris Fashion Week

While the Olympic Games shone a sporting spotlight on the French capital, two months after the Games concluded international attention turned back to Paris, but with a more traditional focus on fashion.

For 2024’s edition of Paris Fashion Week though there was a very unique twist to French designer Christian Louboutin’s ‘Spring / Summer 2025’ show, which was presented at the iconic Piscine Molitor, which first opened in 1929 and possesses a historic art deco swimming pool.

There, the French Olympic team returned to the water for one last time, with the help of Italian World champion Giorgio Minisini, and performed a series of dazzling routines – most notably while wearing striking ‘Miss Z’ stilettos.

The fashion show was created by film director and photographer David LaChapelle together with choreographer Blanca Li and was entitled ‘Paris is Louboutining’.

“It was cool to be able to show that our sport can be competitive sport but also a spectacle sport,” Lunel tells World Aquatics.

“We had about two weeks of rehearsals to prepare a 15-minute show and we were accomplished by Blanca Li and David LaChapelle, which went really well.

“It was an amazing experience to see how these events happen from the inside.

“Also, with the new regulations (in artistic swimming), we have lost a bit of this artistic side, so it was really good to show our sport in another form,” said Lunel before answering the question most people were asking after witnessing the performance.

“No, we hoped, but we didn’t keep them,” she said, while laughing about the team’s desire to retain the eye-catching footwear.

Now For A Competitive Comeback And New Olympic Dream

Lunel feels Paris 2024 helped “shine a light” on her sport, which is traditionally “very little recognised in her homeland”, and believes the athletes helped “put stars in the eyes” of young fans who were watching either in the venue or on television last summer.

Since the Games there have been a number of high-profile retirements from the world of artistic swimming, while French Olympians – and twins – Charlotte and Laura Tremble have also stepped away from the sport.

Therefore, many who have decided to return are doing so with a new perspective and renewed motivation. 

“The objective for the next few years will be to rebuild a new team and seek World medals,” reveals Lunel, who has won three European Championship honours with the national team.

“This (World medals) is what we are missing, and, in the end, going to win the medal in LA (Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028) that we didn’t get in Paris would be really incredible.

Lunel continues, “Singapore (2025 World Aquatics Championships) will therefore be very important, and we hope to win a medal there.”

How The 2025 Season Will Play Out

After the first leg of the 2025 World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup in Paris, the second will take place in Somabay, Egypt, from 11-13 April, before the athletes head to Markham, Canada, for the third leg between 1-3 May.

The top performers from the first three World Cup events will qualify for the 2025 Super Final in Xi’an, China, from 13-15 May.

The senior international season will then conclude with the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, with the artistic swimming programme running from 18-25 July.

Keep visiting the World Aquatics website and social media platforms from 28 Feb to 2 March for all the latest from the Paris leg of the Artistic Swimming World Cup.