] Florent Manaudou (; born 12 November 1990) is a French competitive swimming (sport), swimmer, an Olympic champion of the 50-meter freestyle at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, and the younger brother of

Laure Manaudou Laure Manaudou (; born 9 October 1986) is a retired French Olympic, world and European champion swimmer. She has held the world record in freestyle events between 200 and 1500 meter. She is the daughter of a French father and a Dutch mother, and s ...

, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist in swimming. He currently holds the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

in the 50-meter backstroke (

short course In swimming, the term short course (abbreviated SC) is used to identify a pool that is in length. The term is also often included in meet names when conducted in a short course pool. "Short course" is the second type of pool configuration current ...

). He competes for the

Energy Standard Swim Club Energy Standard are one of the four founding European teams for the International Swimming League. The team is based in Paris, France and trains out of the Gloria Sports Arena in Belek, Turkey. The team won each of their matches in the first se ...

in the

International Swimming League The International Swimming League (ISL) is an annual professional swimming league, established in 2019. It features a team-based competition format with fast-paced race sessions. In 2019, the regular season started in October and the Final Match ...

Personal life

Manaudou is the son of a French father and a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

mother. He first began swimming under the direction of his older brother, and later joined the swimming club of Marseilles, France. In 2007, he was the Junior Champion of France of the 50-meter freestyle event. In 2009, he joined the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

and is currently in an artillery regiment. In 2022, he left the CN Marseille swim club and joined CN Antibes.Keith, Braden (13 February 2022)
"Florent Manaudou, Pernille Blume Swim First Long Course Races Since Olympics"
''

SwimSwam ''SwimSwam'' news is a swimming news organization covering competitive swimming along with diving, water polo and synchronized swimming. SwimSwam launched as a website in March 2012 and quickly became the most-read swimming website in the world. ...

''. Retrieved 13 February 2022. He and his sister Laure are the first siblings to both win Olympic gold medals in swimming. Manaudou was awarded the Knight of the French National Order of the

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

for his "eminent merits" in swimming for his performance in 2012. In September 2021, Manaudou announced his engagement to his girlfriend of over a year and a half,

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

swimmer and Olympic gold medalist

Pernille Blume Pernille Blume (born 14 May 1994) is a former Danish swimmer specializing in sprint freestyle events. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics. At the 2016 Summer Olympics she was the gold medalist in the women's 50 metre freestyle and won a b ...

.D'Addona, Dan (1 September 2021)
"Olympic Gold Medalists Pernille Blume, Florent Manaudou Announce Engagement"
''

Swimming World ''Swimming World'' is a US-based monthly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'', (known ...

''. Retrieved 16 January 2022.Race, Retta (1 September 2021)
"Sprint Champions Manaudou & Blume Announce Engagement"
''

''. Retrieved 16 January 2022. The following month Manaudou was present in the audience to support his fiancée Pernille Blume as she competed on '' Vild med dans''.Johnson, Annika (8 October 2021)
"Pernille Blume Shines On Dance Show With Manaudou In The Audience"
''

''. Retrieved 16 January 2022.

Swimming career

2011 World Championships

In his only individual event at the

2011 World Aquatics Championships The 14th FINA World Championships () were held on 16–31 July 2011 in Shanghai, China at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. The 2011 World Championships featured five aquatics disciplines: swimming, water polo, diving, open water, and synchro ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, the 50-meter butterfly, Manaudou placed fifth in the final with a time of 23.49. It was slightly slower than the times he posted in the heats (23.31) and semifinals (23.32). Manaudou also competed in the heats of the 4×100-meter medley relay and as the butterfly leg, had a split of 54.02. The French team did not advance to the final with an overall time of 3:36.21.

2012 Summer Olympics

At the French Olympic Trials, Manaudou qualified for the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

by finishing second behind

Amaury Leveaux Amaury Raymond Leveaux (born 2 December 1985) is a French swimmer from Belfort. Leveaux is a former world record holder in the 100 m freestyle (short course – 44.94 sec), the 50 m freestyle (short course – 20.48 sec), and the 50 m butterfl ...

in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 21.95. Despite entering the Olympics with only the 10th fastest time in the men's 50-meter freestyle in the world that year, Manaudou won the gold medal in that event (which was the only event he entered). He thus became the first French gold-medalist of the men's 50-meter freestyle and the sixth French Olympic champion in an individual event. Swimming out in lane 7 in the final, Manaudou had a time of 21.34 and finished ahead of

Cullen Jones Cullen Andrew Jones (born February 29, 1984) is an American former competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist who specializes in Freestyle swimming, freestyle sprint events. As part of the American team, he holds the List of world records in ...

and favorite

César Cielo César Augusto Cielo Filho (, born 10 January 1987) is a Brazilian competitive swimmer who specializes in sprint events. He is the most successful Brazilian swimmer in history, having obtained three Olympic medals, winning six individual World ...

, the defending champion and world record holder. Manaudou's time was slightly slower than the Olympic record of 21.30 set by Cielo in 2008, but was an unofficial fastest time swam in textile (that is, not wearing a high-tech suit). Going into the final, Manaudou recorded a time of 22.09 in the heats and 21.80 in the semifinals.

2012 Short Course Competitions

Following the Olympics, Manaudou competed at the 2012 European Short Course Championships and the 2012 World Short Course Championships held at the end of 2012. At the European Championships in Chartres, Manaudou won five gold medals including an individual title in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 20.70. At the World Short Course Championships in Istanbul, Manaudou won one silver and bronze medal. In his specialty event, the 50-meter freestyle, Manaudou placed second behind Russian swimmer Vladimir Morozov (who he beat in Chartres) by three tenths of a second (0.33) with a time of 20.88.

2013 World Championships

At the

2013 World Aquatics Championships The 15th FINA World Championships ( ca, Campionat Mundial de Natació de 2013, es, Campeonato Mundial de Natación de 2013) were held from 20 July to 4 August in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, Manaudou won gold in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay with

Yannick Agnel Yannick Agnel (born 9 June 1992) is a French former competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle events, and is a three-time Olympic medalist. In his Olympic debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he won gold in the 200-meter freesty ...

Fabien Gilot Fabien Pierre Aurélien Dominique Gilot (born 27 April 1984) is a French Olympic and world champion swimmer. Early life Gilot was born in Denain, France, to Michel and Yveline Gilot. He started by playing water polo, before switching to swimmi ...

, and

Jérémy Stravius Jérémy Stravius (born 14 July 1988) is a French swimmer, swimming freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly. Career Stravius appeared on the world stage at the 2009 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Istanbul where he was part of the w ...

. Swimming the second leg, Manaudou recorded a time of 47.93 while the French team had an aggregated time of 3:11.18. In the 50-meter freestyle, Manaudou lead the heats and semifinals with times of 21.72 and 21.37. In the final however, he finished 5th with a time of 21.64. Manaudou also competed in the 50-meter butterfly and finished 8th with a time of 23.35.

2014

Manaudou won six medals at the 2014 World Short Course Championships (including three golds) and four gold medals at the

2014 European Aquatics Championships The 2014 European Aquatics Championships took place from 13 to 24 August 2014 in Berlin, Germany. It was the 31st edition of the championships, and was held in a temporary facility placed in the centre of the Berlin Velodrome. Great Britain head ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. At the World Short Course Championships, Manaudou broke the first

world records A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

of his career in the 50-meter backstroke and freestyle.

2015

Manaudou won three gold medals at the

2015 World Aquatics Championships The 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships (russian: Чемпионат мира по водным видам спорта 2015), also Aquatics 2015, were held in Kazan, Russia from 24 July to 9 August 2015. Russia host ...

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

, including the 50 m freestyle where he swam the fastest time ever in textile in 21.19.

2016 Summer Olympics

Manaudou failed in his bid to qualify for the

2016 Olympic Games ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

100m freestyle when he only finished third at the French national championships held on April 1 in

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

. He had been hoping to pull off a 50m-100m freestyle double at the 2016 Olympic Games in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

but his time of 48.10sec was bettered by

(47.97) and Clement Mignon (48.01). Only the top two finishers would qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games. Manaudou, the reigning Olympic/World/European champion in the 50m freestyle, had been the second fastest over the 100m freestyle this season. However, he qualified to represent France in the 50 m freestyle, where he won silver, and was part of the French 4 × 100 m freestyle team that also won silver.

2019 International Swimming League

Manaudou swam with swim club Energy Standard as part of the inaugural season of the

, co-captaining the team alongside

Sarah Sjöström Sarah Fredrika Sjöström (; born 17 August 1993) is a Swedish competitive swimmer specialising in the sprint freestyle and butterfly events. She is the current world record holder in the 50 metre freestyle (long course), the 100 metre freestyle ...

. He won races in freestyle, butterfly, and freestyle skins.

2020 Summer Olympics

Manaudou qualified for the 50 metre freestyle at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

by winning the 50 metre freestyle at the FFN Golden Tour event 'Camille Muffat' in Marseille, France with a season-best time of 21.72 seconds. At the Olympic Games themselves, in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, he qualified second fastest from the prelims heats to the semifinals of the 50 metre freestyle with a time of 21.65 seconds. In the semifinals the next day, he lowered his time to 21.53 seconds, advancing to the final ranked second overall. In the final Manaudou won the silver medal ahead of bronze medalist Bruno Fratus of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and behind gold medalist

Caeleb Dressel Caeleb Remel Dressel (born August 16, 1996) is an American professional swimmer who specializes in freestyle, butterfly, and individual medley events. He swims representing the Cali Condors as part of the International Swimming League. He won ...

of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

with a time of 21.55 seconds, which marked the third-consecutive

Olympic medal An Olympic medal is awarded to successful competitors at one of the Olympic Games. There are three classes of medal to be won: gold, silver, and bronze, awarded to first, second, and third place, respectively. The granting of awards is laid o ...

Manaudou had won in the 50 metre freestyle at the Olympic Games, after winning the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

in 2012 and the silver medal in 2016, then behind gold medalist

Anthony Ervin Anthony Lee Ervin (born May 26, 1981) is an American competition swimmer who has won four Olympic medals and two World Championship golds. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, he won a gold medal in the men's 50-meter freestyle, and earned a silver med ...

of the United States. He also competed in the 4x100 metre freestyle relay where his relay team placed sixth in the final.

Personal best times

Awards

* ''

'' Top 100 (Men's): 2021 (#25),Gibbs, Robert (3 February 2021)
"SwimSwam's Top 100 For 2021: Men's #30 — #21"
''

''. Retrieved 11 October 2021. 2022 (#77)Sutherland, James (6 January 2022)
"SwimSwam's Top 100 For 2022: Men's #100-76"
''

''. Retrieved 6 January 2022.

Television

Florent Manaudou has also appeared on TV series such as '' Vestiaires'' (

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 ...

) and ' ( TF1). In 2018, he appears on TV Series ''

Section de recherches ''Section de recherches ("Investigation Unit")'' is a French television series first broadcast on TF1 on May 11, 2006. In Belgium, the series was shown on La Une from November 9, 2013. Plot The Investigation Unit is a special unit of the Natio ...

'' ( TF1, season 12).

Controversy

Manaudou has received criticism from wildlife organisations and members of the public on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

platform

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

for posting a photo of himself posing with a

Lar gibbon The lar gibbon (''Hylobates lar''), also known as the white-handed gibbon, is an endangered primate in the gibbon family, Hylobatidae. It is one of the better-known gibbons and is often kept in captivity. Taxonomy There are five subspecies of ...

in Thailand on Facebook.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Manaudou, Florent 1990 births Living people Olympic swimmers of France Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for France People from Villeurbanne French male backstroke swimmers French male breaststroke swimmers French male butterfly swimmers French male freestyle swimmers French people of Dutch descent Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics World record holders in swimming World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming European champions for France Olympic silver medalists for France Olympic gold medalists in swimming Olympic silver medalists in swimming Sportspeople from Lyon Metropolis