Florent Manaudou: Keeping it in the family
The younger brother of 2004 Olympic 400m freestyle champion Laure Manaudou, Florent Manaudou emulated his sister by winning 50m freestyle gold at London 2012, just one of the many high points of a short but already glittering career.
Sibling inspiration
“Everyone thinks I was born on 3 August 2012, but that’s not the case at all,” writes Florent Manaudou in his blog, referring to his 50m freestyle win at the London Games. “I think one of the reasons why I amazed you was because of the childhood I spent in Amberieu with my father, who was a handball player and my mother, a badminton champion. We did a lot of things as a family, and I started my elite swimming career with my brother Nico as my coach.”
Four years younger than his sister Laure, Florent was 13 when he watched her win 400m freestyle gold at Athens 2004. “I always wanted to swim faster and to go all the way to the Olympics. But when my sister won her title, it wasn’t so much a case of taking part as wanting to win,” he added.
London calling
Under the watchful eye of his brother, Manaudou threw himself into his training programme, devoting his energies to the freestyle, backstroke and butterfly sprint events. He continued to make rapid progress after joining the Marseille club Cercle des Nageurs, winning the national junior 50m freestyle title in 2007 and then qualifying for the 2011 FINA World Championships in Shanghai, where he came fifth in the 50m butterfly final. Then in March 2012 he earned a ticket to the London Games after finishing second in the 50m freestyle at the French trials in Dunkirk.
A big hug
Lining up in lane seven for the Olympic final in London and cheered on by sister Laure in the stands, Manaudou turned on the power as he led from start to finish to win by a comfortable 0.20 seconds from the USA’s Cullen Jones and defending champion Cesar Cielo of Brazil.
The scene of the Manadou siblings locked together in a celebratory hug afterwards proved to be one of the most moving moments of the Games.
Gold rush
Manaudou followed up his Olympic triumph with a string of titles, teaming up with compatriots Yannick Agnel, Jeremy Stravius and Fabien Gilot to win the world the 4x100m freestyle crown in Barcelona in 2013 and then helping himself to golds in the 50m butterfly and 50m, 100m and 4x100m freestyle events at the 2014 European Championships in Berlin.
He went on to win six medals at the 2014 FINA Short Course World Championships in Doha. His winning times of 20.26 seconds the 50m freestyle and 20.22 seconds in the 50m backstroke were new world records, while he contributed to a new European record of 3.3.78 in the 4x100m freestyle, which yielded another gold. Just for good measure, he took silver in the 100m freestyle and the 4x50m medley and a bronze in the 4x100m medley.
More to come
“I feel like I’ve achieved my childhood dream, but I still have a lot of challenges to fulfil before I can say I’m a swimming champion,” Manaudou said at the end of 2014.
Having made such a splash in the early phase of his career, he will be one of the firm favourites at the FINA World Championships in Kazan (RUS) in July 2015 and again at Rio 2016.
