WORLDS 2022 – Florent Manaudou without a final: “It proves that talent is not enough and that you have to work”

Florent Manaudou took a hit, but he knows where he comes from. This post-Olympic year, the Olympic vice-champion of the Tokyo Games placed it under the sign of “transition“. While he had finished the Rio Olympics in 2016 out of breath and with the desire to see something other than pools, the leader of the French team changed his daily life to better approach the 2024 Olympics. from Paris.

Passed in Antibes under the direction of a tandem of coaches, Quentin Coton and Yoris Grandjean, he won in “quietude“in his life”daily”. However, he has not given everything since the Games either to reach the peak of his form for these Hungarian Worlds. “I was not consistent enough this year, he conceded. It proves that talent is not enough and that you have to work. I have worked less so it does not pass. It’s normal when you’ve worked less“.

Stung to the quick by this early enlightenment, the CN Marseille swimmer does not want to self-flagellate either. He knows why he opted for this strategy, which sees the long term. “I must not forget that I resumed in January. I’m disappointed but that’s how it is. It was the but this year to take a little height and do something else“, dropped Laure’s little brother, eager to spare himself – especially mentally – to continue his Olympic harvest.

This stinging failure with this time of 21”95 – far from what he had shown at the Games (21”55) – can now be a blessing in disguise. Because he intends to feed on it for the next few years. “It will allow me to put my ideas in place. And to work hard for the remaining two yearst”, announces the quadruple world champion in the long course (one title in 2013, three in 2015). And the ego of such a champion can be a powerful engine to go high. At 31, Manaudou knows something about it. .