Laure Manaudou
Encyclopedia
Laure Manaudou is a French
Olympic, world and European champion swimmer. She is the daughter of a French father and a Dutch
mother.
at the 2004 Athens Olympics. 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
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, becoming only the second Frenchwoman to win three medals in a single Olympic Games
, Summer or Winter. The first one was the track and field athlete Micheline Ostermeyer
in London in 1948. Manaudou was by far the best swimmer on the French team, and did not have the team support to win a medal in the women's 4×200 m freestyle relay.
Manaudou is currently tied for second (three medals altogether) on the all-time list of French multiple female Winter or Summer Olympic medal winners along with Micheline Ostermeyer, Marielle Goitschel
, Pascale Trinquet-Hachin, Perrine Pelen
, Anne Briand-Bouthiaux, Marie-José Pérec
, Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli and Félicia Ballanger
. The all-time leader is the fencer Laura Flessel-Colovic
, who has five Olympic medals.
, Spain, for the 100 metre backstroke, 400 metre freestyle, and the 4×100 metre team medley races.
in Montreal
, 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
at the 1988 Summer Olympics
. 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.
'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
, 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's Ute Geweniger
(1981) and Hungary's Krisztina Egerszegi
(1993).
in winning the final. She also won the 400 m freestyle event, obtained a silver for the 100 m backstroke and the 800 m freestyle, and a bronze for 4×200 m freestyle relay. 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.
, 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.
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.”
However, at the age of 24 she is again swimming competitively and is training at Auburn. She returned to competitive swimming on July 14, 2011, setting a personal record in the 50 m freestyle (25.93 s) at Athens, Georgia
.
ran a cover story on Manaudou in its 5–11 April 2007 issue.
From 2001–2007, Manaudou was coached by Philippe Lucas. She competed for the Melun-Dammarie club until 2006, when she moved to Canet-en-Roussillon
.
On 9 May 2007, she announced at a press conference at the Canet-en-Roussillon swim club that she was leaving her coach Philippe Lucas to move to Italy and to train with the club Lapresse Nuoto, located in Turin. She added, however, that she would continue to swim for France.
On 6 August it was reported that Manaudou had been removed from her Italian-based team. The split is said to have been triggered by a fallout between Manaudou and LaPresse Nuoto club chief executive Paolo Penso. Penso is believed to have questioned Manaudou's attitude to training (Reuters/L'Equipe).
Manaudou won four medals in the European Championships of 2007, despite reported conflicts between her and Luca Marin
, her Italian ex-boyfriend.
The same day, lewd pictures of Laure Manaudou started to propagate on the Internet. Marin denied being the culprit.
On April 2, 2010, she and her boyfriend, Frédérick Bousquet
, also a professional swimmer, welcomed their first child, daughter Manon.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
Olympic, world and European champion swimmer. She is the daughter of a French father and a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
mother.
2004 Olympics
Manaudou currently holds the world records for the 400 meter freestyle (short course), but she has lost her "long course" record, which is set in 50 meter pools. She won the gold medal in the women's 400 meter freestyleFreestyle swimming
Freestyle is an unregulated swimming style used in swimming competitions according to the rules of FINA. The front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a freestyle race, as this style is generally the fastest...
at the 2004 Athens Olympics. 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
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
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
Ai Shibata
is a Japanese swimmer. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal in the 800 meter freestyle race and became the first ever female gold medalist for Japan in a freestyle event....
of Japan. She also won the bronze medal in the women's 100 meter backstroke, becoming only the second Frenchwoman to win three medals in a single Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
, Summer or Winter. The first one was the track and field athlete Micheline Ostermeyer
Micheline Ostermeyer
Micheline Ostermeyer was a French athlete and concert pianist.A great-niece of the French author Victor Hugo, and a niece of the composer Lucien Paroche, Ostermeyer, who was Jewish, was born in Rang-du-Fliers, Pas-de-Calais...
in London in 1948. Manaudou was by far the best swimmer on the French team, and did not have the team support to win a medal in the women's 4×200 m freestyle relay.
Manaudou is currently tied for second (three medals altogether) on the all-time list of French multiple female Winter or Summer Olympic medal winners along with Micheline Ostermeyer, Marielle Goitschel
Marielle Goitschel
Marielle Goitschel is a former French alpine skier. Marielle is the younger sister of Christine Goitschel, another champion skier of the time, and the aunt of current speed skier Philippe Goitschel....
, Pascale Trinquet-Hachin, Perrine Pelen
Perrine Pelen
Perrine Pelen is a former alpine ski racer from France.-Biography:Born at Boulogne-Billancourt, she made her World Cup debut at age 16 in December 1976 and won three slalom races that 1977 season....
, Anne Briand-Bouthiaux, Marie-José Pérec
Marie-José Pérec
Marie-José Pérec is a French athlete, specialised in the 200 and 400 m, and a triple Olympic champion....
, Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli and Félicia Ballanger
Félicia Ballanger
Félicia Ballanger was a French racing cyclist.She won five world championships in the sprint and 500 m time trial. She was also a triple Olympic champion. She is tall and weighs .- Biography :...
. The all-time leader is the fencer Laura Flessel-Colovic
Laura Flessel-Colovic
Laura Flessel-Colovic is a French épée fencer. She is currently number one on the all-time list of French female Winter or Summer Olympic medal winners with five medals, two more than...
, who has five Olympic medals.
2004 European Swimming Championships
Laure Manadou has won three gold medals at the 2004 European Swimming Championships in MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain, for the 100 metre backstroke, 400 metre freestyle, and the 4×100 metre team medley races.
2005 World Swimming Championships
On 24 July 2005 at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships2005 World Aquatics Championships
The 2005 World Aquatics Championships or the XI FINA World Championships were held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from July 16 to July 31, 2005...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, 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 Evans
Janet Beth Evans is a American competitive swimmer who specializes in distance freestyle. She recently announced her comeback to the sport with intentions to swim in the 2012 Olympic Trials.-Biography:...
at the 1988 Summer Olympics
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from September 17 to October 2, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first since the 1964 Summer Olympics...
. 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 Swimming Championships and new 400 m freestyle world record
On 12 May 2006, Manaudou broke Janet EvansJanet Evans
Janet Beth Evans is a American competitive swimmer who specializes in distance freestyle. She recently announced her comeback to the sport with intentions to swim in the 2012 Olympic Trials.-Biography:...
'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
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, 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's Ute Geweniger
Ute Geweniger
Ute Geweniger was a breaststroke and medley swimmer of the 1980s who was a leading member of the East German swimming team. She won two Olympic gold medals, in the 100 m breaststroke and 4×100 m medley relay at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and set seven individual and two relay...
(1981) and Hungary's Krisztina Egerszegi
Krisztina Egerszegi
Krisztina Egerszegi is a Hungarian former world record holding swimmer and one of the greatest Hungarian Olympic champions of the modern era...
(1993).
2007 World Swimming Championships and new 200 m freestyle world record
Manaudou broke the 200 m freestyle world record at the 2007 World Swimming Championships in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
in winning the final. She also won the 400 m freestyle event, obtained a silver for the 100 m backstroke and the 800 m freestyle, and a bronze for 4×200 m freestyle relay. She was leading the race in the 800 m final going into the last lap, but the American Kate Ziegler
Kate Ziegler
Kate Marie Ziegler is an American long-distance swimmer. She currently holds the world record in the 1500-meter freestyle ....
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 Olympics2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
, 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 ParisienLe Parisien
Le Parisien is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It was established as Le Parisien libéré by Émilien Amaury in 1944, and the name was changed to the current one in 1986...
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.”
However, at the age of 24 she is again swimming competitively and is training at Auburn. She returned to competitive swimming on July 14, 2011, setting a personal record in the 50 m freestyle (25.93 s) at Athens, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
.
Personal life
The weekly magazine Paris MatchParis Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....
ran a cover story on Manaudou in its 5–11 April 2007 issue.
From 2001–2007, Manaudou was coached by Philippe Lucas. She competed for the Melun-Dammarie club until 2006, when she moved to Canet-en-Roussillon
Canet-en-Roussillon
Canet-en-Roussillon is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.-References:*...
.
On 9 May 2007, she announced at a press conference at the Canet-en-Roussillon swim club that she was leaving her coach Philippe Lucas to move to Italy and to train with the club Lapresse Nuoto, located in Turin. She added, however, that she would continue to swim for France.
On 6 August it was reported that Manaudou had been removed from her Italian-based team. The split is said to have been triggered by a fallout between Manaudou and LaPresse Nuoto club chief executive Paolo Penso. Penso is believed to have questioned Manaudou's attitude to training (Reuters/L'Equipe).
Manaudou won four medals in the European Championships of 2007, despite reported conflicts between her and Luca Marin
Luca Marin
Luca Marin is an Italian medley swimmer. He specializes in the 400 m medley, and won six silver medals at the European and World Championship in this event. At the 2006 European Championship he won a gold medal, beating László Cseh, world record holder...
, her Italian ex-boyfriend.
The same day, lewd pictures of Laure Manaudou started to propagate on the Internet. Marin denied being the culprit.
On April 2, 2010, she and her boyfriend, Frédérick Bousquet
Frédérick Bousquet
Frédérick Bousquet is a freestyle and butterfly swimmer from France. He was the holder of the world record in the 50 m freestyle in a time of 20.94 in long course, set on April 26, 2009 at the final of the French Championships...
, also a professional swimmer, welcomed their first child, daughter Manon.
Accomplishments
| Event | Olympics Games | | World Championships | | European Championships | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 in Athens 2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team... |
2005 in Montréal 2005 World Aquatics Championships The 2005 World Aquatics Championships or the XI FINA World Championships were held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from July 16 to July 31, 2005... |
2007 in Melbourne 2007 World Aquatics Championships The 2007 World Aquatics Championships or the XII FINA World Championships were held in Melbourne, Australia from 17 March to 1 April 2007... |
2004 in Madrid |
2006 in Budapest |
2008 in Eindhoven |
||||
| Freestyle | 200 m | 1:55.52 WR | 1:58,38 | ||||||
| 400 m | 4:05.34 ER | 4:06.44 | 4:02.61 CR | 4:07.90 | 4:02.13 WR | ||||
| 800 m | 8:24.96 | 8:18.80 ER | 8:19.29 ER | ||||||
| 4×200 m | 7:55.96 NR | 7:56.44 NR | 7:52.09 NR | ||||||
| Backstroke | 100 m | 1:00.88 | 59.87 ER | 1:00.93 | 1:00.88 | 1:00.05 | |||
| 200 m | 2:07.99 NR | ||||||||
| Medley | 200 m | 2:12.69 | |||||||
| 4×100 m | 4:05.96 | 4:03.64 NR | |||||||
- WR : World record
- ER : European record
- NR : National record
- CR : Championship record
Career best times
- 200 m freestyle: 1.55.52 (4th fastest swimmer ever)
- 400 m freestyle: 4:02.13 (4th fastest swimmer ever)
- 800 m freestyle: 8:18.80 (4th fastest swimmer ever)
- 100 m backstroke: 59.50 (6th fastest swimmer ever)
- 200 m backstroke: 2:06.64 (4th fastest swimmer ever)
External links
- Official website
- Swim Rankings profile
- "Laure Manaudou", n°27 on TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
’s list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch"