To think that two years ago, he was still playing in the fourth national handball division, for fun. Florent Manaudou did well to return to swimming, after a break outside the pools between 2016 and 2019.
On July 26, he played with the French team in the final of the 4 x 100 m relay, completed in the 6e square. Sunday 1er August, the day of the last swimming events, the Frenchman left the aquatic center of the Tokyo Olympic Games with the silver medal: he completed his 50m freestyle in 21 seconds and 55 hundredths, behind the new Olympic record of the ‘American (21”07). His third medal in a row over this distance, after gold, in 2012, at the London Games and silver, in 2016, at those of Rio de Janeiro. A swimmer had already achieved a treble over this distance, during three consecutive editions: the American Gary Hall (silver in 1996, then gold in 2000 and 2004).
Tricolor flag on the shoulders, Florent Manaudou can now savor his hat-trick over 50 m. The license holder of the Cercle des nageurs de Marseille has his eyes cloudy when he receives his silver medal on a plate. Hands raised to the sky to address a salute to the thin French delegation present in the gallery – we must leave these Games and the capital 48 hours after its last race. Before this new podium, he already expressed his desire to participate in the 2024 Games in Paris – he will then be 33 years old. Either as a consultant for television, or… in the basin.
“Let go of these Games and swim to swim”
At 30, Florent Manaudou had expressed, Friday, after his qualification for the semi-finals, “His desire to let go of these Games and swim for the sake of swimming, to have fun”. Without wanting to get lost in conjectures or analyzes. “I fiddled with my mind too much for months”, he justified. “I don’t want to aim for anything because it puts too much pressure on me. “
“I am so proud of him”, said her partner, the Danish Pernille, herself a bronze medalist in the next race, the women’s 50m freestyle. Never before him, a Frenchman had climbed on the podium of the same individual event during three Olympic Games in a row. “Maybe I should take a break too, then!” “, joked Bruno Fratus, bronze medalist Sunday (21 ”57), chest covered with tattoos, to underline the performance of the Frenchman.
Before these Games, the captain of the France team had only the ninth best time of the year over the distance: 21 ”67 during his semi-final at the European Championships, in mid-May, in Budapest. Before leaving for Tokyo, in an interview with World, the captain of the French swimming team said to himself ” hyperexcited ” to face competition from Caeleb Dressel. “To know that I’m not the best and that I have to improve, that’s something great, he explained. If sport was math, I wouldn’t have done it again. “
When taking the plane home, Florent Manaudou packs the only French swimming medal at these Games. Far from the London collection, in 2012, to which he had already contributed.