2023-04-17 22:30:12
Teddy Tamgho surprised many observers. Retired since 2019, now a coach, the triple jump specialist has announced his return with one goal in mind: gold, at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Before him, other athletes have tried everything in the perspective of winning another Olympic medal. Here is a non-exhaustive selection.
In 2012, the missed London of Laure Manaudou
The eldest of the Manaudou siblings shone very young. At 17 in Athens, Laure won Olympic gold in the 400m freestyle, followed by silver in the 800m freestyle and bronze in the 100m backstroke. The rest of the Olympic adventure is more delicate. In 2008 in Beijing, the swimmer, who in the meantime left Philippe Lucas and changed her place of training, failed to reach the podium. A few months later, in September 2009, she announced the end of her career. “I quit. It was not a difficult decision to make (…). It’s not a whim. All this matured slowly, ”she explains at 22 years old.
But this retirement was aborted in 2011. London in the lead, Laure Manaudou returned to competition and managed to qualify for the competition. But she will be eliminated from the series of 100 and 200 m backstroke, before leaving the pools for good.
In 2021, the happy money of the other Manaudou
Titled under the eyes of his sister in London in 2012 in the 50m freestyle, Florent Manaudou continues with Rio where he takes a silver medal in the same event. In the process, the swimmer decides to take a “parenthesis” in his career, to devote himself to handball. He then spoke of the wish to “find a different source of pleasure” within the Aix-en-Provence club.
Three years later, in 2019, he plunged again. “I want to get back to competition. For some time, I miss it and more and more. (…) I had a blast at the hand, had a blast doing a bit of cinema… But while talking with my relatives, my former coaches, I set myself a challenge: getting back into competition. I want to re-train, have fun where I no longer had any at the Rio Games, ”he told our colleagues from L’Équipe. The return is rather successful, since Manaudou again takes silver in Tokyo. The swimmer has even returned for three more years: from Antibes, he is preparing for Paris 2024, hoping to win a fourth medal in as many Olympics.
Michael Phelps for the legend
Another star of the basins, Michael Phelps had decided to stop in 2012, after the London Olympics, where he won four gold medals, and then became the most decorated sportsman of the Games, with 22 charms, including 18 titles. But in April 2014, the American Swimming Federation announced its return. The only downside: arrested in a state of drunkenness at the wheel of his car in October of the same year, he received a six-month suspension from his federation. In Rio in 2016, where he is the flag bearer of his delegation, his comeback is a success as he wins five new titles.
But also…
Other comebacks have been attempted in recent years, certainly less publicized, and sometimes aborted. This is particularly the case of that of the athlete Marie Gayot. Triple European medalist with the 4 x 400m relay, she retired after Rio in 2016 and announced her return in 2019, with the aim of qualifying for Tokyo. She had also sought the advice of a certain … Teddy Tamgho, then already a trainer at INSEP, but his attempt to come back was stopped by the Covid-19 epidemic.
As for archery, crowned in 1992 in Barcelona at just 20 years old, Sébastien Flute had retired for the first time in 2000. He attempted a comeback in 2009, with London in sight, but he failed to qualify for the competition.
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