In the spring, Florent Manaudou still wore a thin mustache. “We shave at the last moment. All swimmers are like that, it’s just that you only see us in international competition, he explained in April, in a Parisian hotel. Shaving my legs and beard also puts me in competition, I know it’s going to be an important day. “ Like Sunday 1er August in Tokyo. That day, the French swimmer intends to play his third Olympic final in the 50m freestyle – provided he passes the qualifications on Friday and Saturday. He won gold in 2012, at the London Games, to everyone’s surprise. Then the money in 2016 in Rio, when many imagined him, this time, raising his arms as a winner.
For his third participation, “I am more an outsider than a favorite”, he admits, author of the ninth fastest time of the season (21 ”67 in his semi-final at the European Championships, mid-May, in Budapest). The omens give the advantage to the American Caeleb Dressel, Olympic champion in the 100m freestyle Thursday and title candidate on the one-way, as for all the distances on which he lines up in the basin of the aquatic center of Tokyo .
Manaudou, 30, can already savor a success in itself: his presence in Japan. Some coaches may have been skeptical, but the French swimmer proves that one can qualify for the Games after three years out of the water. Manaudou took a break away from the pools between September 2016, the day after the Rio Games, and March 2019. “I wanted to do what I wanted, to choose my life, he justifies, aware of this luxury. I didn’t want a program saying: “Sunday evening: tomorrow at 8 am, you have to be at the pool, then afterwards, physiotherapist”. “ Before making this hypothesis: “I think at some point we all get a little fed up with doing something that isn’t necessarily fun and we stop. ” At least, if we can afford it financially.
“Muscle memory”
For three years, the Olympic champion lived on his savings. Those accumulated during his first swimming career and, above all, his advertising contracts. “I did the things I wanted to do: a bit of ‘acting’, a bit of hand, a bit of guitar for me, I touched a lot of things. “ Some brands have remained loyal to her, given her notoriety outside the pools, in the wake of that of her older sister, Laure, gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Games.
This son of a former handball player played for the reserve team of the Pays d’Aix Université Club handball (PAUC) for three seasons. For fun, but with the dream of a professional contract – which did not happen. “When I did handball, there was never a moment when I said to myself: ‘Ah, I have to go to train’, he says today. We play with a ball, with friends, we score goals… ” The implication is that we are more bored alone than in a team. He takes a general example: “The first thing you do when you play in the playground, in elementary school, is that you play soccer. We don’t say: “I’m going to run for recess”. “
“What I missed a lot was being very good at something”
Why, then, go back to swimming? In handball, Manaudou played in Nationale 2 (the fourth division). There comes a time when “We miss the adrenaline of competition”, he explains as if to include with this plural all professional swimmers, one day tired of going around in circles in a jar. “What I missed a lot was being very good at something. ” No playing supporting roles.
In March 2019, he announced soberly in the columns of The team : ” I will be back. ” Only ten weeks after putting on the swimsuit, the Frenchman is already freaking out stopwatch. A noticeable return, slowed down a few months later by the Covid-19 pandemic. But stimulated by competition from a Dressel, almost 25 years old. “I’m also super excited to know that I’m not the best and that I have to improve, that’s something great. If sport was math, I wouldn’t have done it again. “
Two sports, for two different bodies. “ [Passer] from swimming to hand, it was more complicated [que du handball à la natation]. I wasn’t used to the supports, so physically, even though I was 20 kg heavier than some players, they still moved me. “ The return to swimming posed fewer problems: “It was easier, because I have muscle memory. Swimmers’ lower backs are not arched at the same level as other athletes. ”
“Tired of living in my suitcase”
For the past two years, Manaudou has divided his time between Antalya (Turkey), where James Gibson, the British coach who led him to the Olympic title in 2012, is based, and the Cercle des nageurs de Marseille club. Before stopping the round trips, six months before the Games. Partly because of relations between France and Turkey and their deterioration. Much because of the fatigue of traveling. “I made a list of the pluses and minuses: I included travel, recovery, diplomatic relations, and then I did my calculation. “ Results : “I was tired of living in my suitcase. When you’re 20, you recover faster. “
Florent Manaudou speaks like an old man – which he is, on the scale of the French swimming team. A bit like his Sunday habits: he sometimes stays at home all day, so as not to miss sporting events. “I put alerts on my phone!” ” He taps on his phone: “On March 21, I put that: biathlon, mass-start, PSG in hand, OL-PSG in football, skiing with Pinturault. I watch everything. I work out six days a week, but now I spend my day watching TV. ” With the blessing of his partner, Danish swimmer Pernille Blume.
A pause, then this reflection: “Sport is the vector of a lot of emotions. “ Positive, should we hear. “I don’t think I will spend the same day if I watch sports channels or if I watch continuous news channels…” He presents himself as a “Epicurean”, to talk about his extra-sporting projects. In Paris, in April, he chained two days of filming for an appearance in Asterix and Obelix: the Middle Kingdom, next film by Guillaume Canet. “When we exposed to the coach [Julien Jacquier] the possibility of this filming, he said to me: “You decide”. “ The 30-year-old now has exit permission.