Florent Manaudou, Olympic champion in the 50m freestyle at the 2012 London Games, announces in L’Equipe his return to the competition after three years of retirement.
Florent Manaudou , Olympic champion in the 50m freestyle at the 2012 London Games, announced in the daily L’Equipe his return to the competition after three years devoted to his other passions, handball and cinema.
“I want to resume the competition. For some time, I miss it and more and more. I had a lot of fun doing the things I wanted to do for a long time. I exploded at the hand, exploded to do some cinema … I launched myself a challenge: to revive myself in the competition. I want to re-train, have fun where I did not have any more at the Rio Games”
Florent Manaudou, 28, had announced in September 2016 “put in parenthesis” his career as a swimmer to satisfy his first passion: handball. He joined the Nationale 2 team in Aix.
“Adrenaline has always been something I loved. In handball, there was more of the game side. In swimming, I train to be the best in the world, to reach an Olympic final, have the stress and hate the defeat. It’s something I had less at hand. That’s why I want to start again”
Three weeks in Antalya
“I had already said that if I wanted to resume for the Paris Games in 2024, I would have to return in 2021 or 2022 at the latest. I did not think at all about the Tokyo Games in 2020, and then little by little, the discussions with James, with the people around me … I got up one morning and said to myself: Let’s go! How can I do? “, Again told Florent Manaudou.
“I’ll spend three weeks in Antalya every five weeks, it’s not going to be easy, but if I want to do it to Tokyo, I’ll do it until Tokyo”
Prudent, Florent Manaudou wanted to warn his supporters and friends that he did not know what to expect.
“Of course there will be expectations when we see the first times I do. I will take things as they come. I hope I’m going to swim very fast. But even I do not know what I’m capable of”
