2023-12-07 20:27:38
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 2 minutes ago, Updated now
Florent Manaudou. Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto / Inside / Panoramic
Silver medalist at the European Short Course Championships this Thursday, the Olympic champion was reassured eight months before the last objective of his career.
Eight months before the Paris Olympics, Florent Manaudou offered himself an unexpected medal on Thursday at the European Short Course Championships near Bucharest, enough to validate the “project” which he built in preparation for the final challenge of his career.
In the final of the 50m freestyle, Manaudou won the silver medal thanks to a time of 20 sec 74, however quite far from the winner Ben Proud (20 sec 18). At the finish, he seemed almost surprised to have managed to secure the podium, he who has not yet really started his Olympic preparation. “Honestly, I had no idea what I was going to do today. I swim two tenths faster than last year by training a little less and having more fun…”.
This medal comes as a fine conclusion to a performance which until then had not been completely worthy of the caliber of the 2012 Olympic champion (21 sec 33 in the heats, 21 sec 06 in the semi-finals). “The race is a little difficult because there isn’t much training”he admitted after his semi-final.
Sometimes I’m motivated, sometimes I’m not motivated, it’s very hard.
Florent Manaudou
At 33, we feel that the desire is not always there for the dean of the Blues. “There, I go to the swimming pool, sometimes I’m motivated, sometimes I’m not motivated, it’s very hard.
The motivation will undoubtedly come by itself in 2024 when he really kicks off his preparation. At the beginning of January, he will fly to Australia for an intensive two-month training camp which will mark “the beginning of (s)our last challenge”. “When you get up in the morning and see 2024 on your phone, it’s not the same as 2023. There are markers like that”he explains.
At the end of the year, and despite fluctuating involvement, he still chose to make a detour to the Otopeni swimming pool, a modern complex located in an industrial zone in the gray suburbs of Bucharest, to compete in the Euro in small pool. “I had checked it on my calendar so I came because I wanted to compete, it forces me to stay a little sporty.”
In these conditions, it is difficult to feel pleasure from swimming competitively, he admitted. “It’s a bit hard because I get caught up in the mood of everyone who is in Olympic preparation. It’s great for them, but I’m not there yet. So it’s a little bit difficult, but I’m doing the job.”
“I raced a 15 year old”
And even if he came away with a medal, he noticed that he could still make beginner’s mistakes, like in the 50m freestyle series, where he believes he had “missed everything”. “I raced a 15-year-old child, a teenager who makes mistakes like a swimmer who is not a 50m freestyle specialist. Although I am 33 years old…”, he said, without losing his smile. “I look at myself and say to myself, ‘Wow, I’m still making mistakes like that at 33+ It’s still crazy!’
“(But) it has flavor and I’m happy to come back with a medal,” however, he stressed. In any case, his performances in Romania will not disrupt his preparation plan for the Paris Games.
“I have my project and I want to see my project through to the end. I’d rather he succeed! But if I start doing the weather vane and changing it every time because the others are swimming faster, frankly it’s useless. We’ll see!”he asserts.
A three-time individual Olympic medalist, he has made the Paris Olympic Games the ultimate goal of his career.
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