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
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, and she is the older sister of
Florent Manaudou
]
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, and the younger brother of Laure Manaudou, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist i ...
who is also an Olympic gold medalist swimmer.
Career
2004 Olympics
She won the gold medal in the women's 400-meter
Freestyle swimming, freestyle at the
2004 Athens Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...
. It was France's first gold medal ever in women's swimming and the first swimming gold medal won by a French athlete since
Jean Boiteux's victory in the 400-meter men's freestyle event at
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
in 1952. Manaudou won the silver medal in the women's 800-meter freestyle at the Athens Olympics. In that race, she had a quick start but was passed down the stretch by
Ai Shibata of Japan. She also won the bronze medal in the women's 100-meter backstroke, thus becoming only the 2nd Frenchwoman to win three medals in a single
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...
, Summer or Winter. The first one was the track and field athlete
Micheline Ostermeyer
Micheline Ostermeyer (23 December 1922 – 17 October 2001) was a French athlete and concert pianist. She won three medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in shot put, discus throw, and high jump. After retiring from sports in 1950, she became a full ...
in London in 1948. Manaudou was by far the best swimmer on the French team, but she did not have the team support to win a medal in the women's 4×200 m freestyle relay.
Manaudou is currently tied for third (three medals altogether) on the all-time list of French multiple female Winter or Summer Olympic medal winners along with
Micheline Ostermeyer
Micheline Ostermeyer (23 December 1922 – 17 October 2001) was a French athlete and concert pianist. She won three medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in shot put, discus throw, and high jump. After retiring from sports in 1950, she became a full ...
,
Marielle Goitschel
Marielle Goitschel (born 28 September 1945 in Sainte-Maxime) is a former French alpine skier. Marielle is the younger sister of Christine Goitschel, another champion skier of the time, and the aunt of speed skier Philippe Goitschel.
After grea ...
,
Pascale Trinquet-Hachin,
Perrine Pelen
Perrine Marie Pelen (born 3 July 1960) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from France. Born at Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, she made her World Cup debut at age 16 in December 1976 and won three slalom races that
Pelen won the bronze m ...
,
Anne Briand-Bouthiaux,
Marie-José Pérec,
Félicia Ballanger and
Camille Muffat. The all-time leader is the fencer
Laura Flessel-Colovic
Laura Flessel-Colovic (born 6 November 1971) is a French politician and épée fencer who served as Minister of Sports from 2017 to 2018. Born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, she has won the most Olympic medals of any French sportswoman, wit ...
, who has five Olympic medals.
2004 European Championships
Laure Manaudou won three gold medals at the
2004 European Swimming Championships in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
, Spain, in the 100-metre backstroke, 400-metre freestyle, and the 4×100-metre medley relay.
2005 World Championships
On 24 July 2005 at the
2005 World Aquatics Championships in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
, Canada, Manaudou won the women's 400-m freestyle. Manaudou was under world record pace for the first half of the race. In the second half of the race, Manaudou was challenged by Shibata, her rival from the Olympics. Pundits were already predicting that Manaudou would eventually eclipse the world-record mark in the 400-m freestyle set by
Janet Evans
Janet Beth Evans (born August 28, 1971) is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in distance freestyle events. Evans was a world champion and world record-holder, and won a total of four gold medals at the 1988 and the 1992 Ol ...
at the
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...
. This would happen on 12 May 2006, as she broke Evans's world record of 4:03.85 during the final of the French championship in Tours with the time of 4:03.03.
2006 European Championships
On 12 May 2006, Manaudou broke
Janet Evans
Janet Beth Evans (born August 28, 1971) is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in distance freestyle events. Evans was a world champion and world record-holder, and won a total of four gold medals at the 1988 and the 1992 Ol ...
's world record in the women's 400-meter freestyle swim that had stood for 18 years. Manaudou then held the same world record for nearly two years.
On 6 August 2006, on the final day of the
2006 European Swimming Championships in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, she broke her own world record with a time of 4:02.13 in winning the 400-m freestyle title. She also won the 800-m freestyle (in European record time), 200-m individual medley and 100-m backstroke titles. In addition, she obtained the bronze medal in the 200-m freestyle, 4×200-m team freestyle and 4×100-m team medley. With her four titles, she equalled the record of the number of individual titles won in the same European swimming championships held by
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
's
Ute Geweniger
Ute Geweniger (later Strauß, born 24 February 1964) is a former breaststroke and medley swimmer who was a leading member of the East German swimming team in the 1980s. She won two Olympic gold medals, in the 100 m breaststroke and ...
(1981) and Hungary's
Krisztina Egerszegi
Krisztina Egerszegi (; born 16 August 1974) is a Hungarian former world record holding swimmer and one of the greatest Hungarian Olympic champions of the modern era. She is a three-time Olympian (1988, 1992 and 1996) and five-time Olympic ch ...
(1993).
2007 World Championships
Manaudou broke the 200-m freestyle world record at the 2007 World Swimming Championships in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
in winning the final. She also won the 400-m freestyle event. She obtained silver medals in the 100-m backstroke and the 800-m freestyle, and a bronze for 4×200-m freestyle relay. In the 100-m backstroke, she became the second woman in history to swim under a minute in the event. She was leading the race in the 800-m final going into the last lap, but the American
Kate Ziegler finally overtook her in the last metres to win by a margin of 28 cm. She was thus prevented from becoming the first female swimmer to win the 200-m, 400-m and 800-m freestyle titles at the same World Championships.
2008 Olympics
In the
2008 Summer Olympics, Manaudou was unable to recapture her form from the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. After starting strong and holding the lead at the 200-meter mark, she finished last (eighth) in the 400-m freestyle final with a finishing time of 4:11.26. After the defeat, Manaudou admitted giving up during the race after struggling to keep up. She then finished seventh in the 100-m backstroke final. In her final hope for a medal, in the 200-m backstroke, she finished last in her semifinal heat and was eliminated.
Retirement and comeback
On 17 September 2009, at 22 years of age, Manaudou announced through the newspaper ''
Le Parisien'' her retirement from competitive swimming. She was quoted as saying, "It came to me little by little. I didn’t make it on impulse. It has matured slowly."
In October 2010, she returned to training in the United States with the
Auburn University Tigers swim team. She made her return to competition on July 14, 2011, in Tigers colours at a small swimming meet in Athens, Georgia, in the United States, where
she set a personal record in the 50-m freestyle event (25.84 s).
2012 Olympics
Manaudou competed in the
2012 Summer Olympics in three events – 100 m backstroke, 200 m backstroke, and the 4 × 100 m medley relay. She failed to advance from the first round heats in all the three events. However, she was poolside on August 3 as her younger brother
Florent Florent is a French version of the Latin personal name Florentius. It is also used as a surname.
People with the first name
* Florent Avdyli (born 1993), Kosovan footballer
* Florent Aziri (born 1988), Kosovan-German footballer
*Florent Hadergjon ...
won a surprise victory in the men's 50 m freestyle final, and embraced him following his victory
Personal life
The weekly magazine ''
Paris Match
''Paris Match'' () is a French-language weekly news magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features.
History and profile
A sports news magazine, ''Match l'intran'' (a play on '' L'Intransigeant ...
'' ran a cover story on Manaudou in its 5–11 April 2007 issue.
Manaudou is now dating
Fréro Delavega singer Jérémy Frérot, with whom she has a son Lou, born on July 18, 2017
Accomplishments
Between June 2004 and April 2008, Manaudou remained unbeaten in the 400-metre freestyle, winning 23 finals in succession.
* WR :
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 ...
* ER :
European record
* NR :
National record
* CR : Championship record
Career best times
* 200-m freestyle: 1.55.51
* 400-m freestyle: 4:02.13
* 800-m freestyle: 8:18.80
* 100-m backstroke: 59.50
* 200-m backstroke: 2:06.64
See also
*
World record progression 200 metres freestyle
This is a history of the progression of the World Record for the Swimming event: the 200 Freestyle swimming, Freestyle. It is a listing of the fastest-time-ever swum in the event, in both long course (50m) and short course (25m) swimming pool. T ...
*
World record progression 400 metres freestyle
The first world record in the men's 400 metres freestyle in long course (50 metres) swimming was recognised by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) in 1908. In the short course (25 metres) swimming events the world's governing b ...
*
World record progression 800 metres freestyle
The first world record in the women's 800 metres freestyle in long course (50 metres) swimming was recognised by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) in 1931. The women's 880 yard freestyle had been a FINA-recognised world record ev ...
*
World record progression 1500 metres freestyle
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
References
External links
*
*
"Laure Manaudou" n°27 on ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
s list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manaudou, Laure
1986 births
Living people
People from Villeurbanne
French female freestyle swimmers
French female backstroke swimmers
World record setters in swimming
Olympic swimmers of France
Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for France
Olympic silver medalists for France
Olympic bronze medalists for France
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
French people of Dutch descent
Olympic bronze medalists in swimming
French female medley swimmers
World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
European champions for France
Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists in swimming
Olympic silver medalists in swimming
Mediterranean Games gold medalists for France
Swimmers at the 2005 Mediterranean Games
Mediterranean Games medalists in swimming
Sportspeople from Lyon Metropolis