French Olympic swimmer Floreng Manaudou is among 12 celebrity participants appearing on Season 14 of Danse avec les stars, the French version of the British dancing show Strictly Come Dancing.
Manaudou is apired with professional dancer and choreographer Elsa Bois, who has been with the show since season 11. There, she finished 3rd with YouTuber Michou as her partner.
The series debuted on February 7 where Manaudou and Bois performed a Salsa dance together to the sound The Time of My Life by Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes. They scored 25 out of a possible 40 points in the dance, and 29 out of 40 points in the Imposed Choreography category.
The Salsa ranked them 3rd out of six couples that competed in week 1, while their compulsory performance ranked them 2nd.
Watch their performance below:
Week 1 Results
| Couple | Score | Style | Music | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florent & Elsa | 25 (7,7,6,5) | Salsa | (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life – Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes | |
| Lénie & Jordan | 33 (8,9,8,8) | Contemporary | À Fleur De Toi – Vitaa | |
| Adil & Ana | 26 (6,7,7,6) | Salsa | Sapés comme jamais – Maître Gims Ft Niska | |
| Charlotte & Yann-Alrick | 20 (5,5,5,5) | Cha-Cha-Cha | Recommence-moi – Santa | |
| Julie & Adrien | 23 (6,6,5,6) | Cha-Cha-Cha | I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) – Whitney Houston | |
| Nelson & Calisson | 15 (4,4,4,3) | American Smooth | Parade – Victor Le Masne | |
| Imposed Choreography | ||||
| Lénie & Jordan | +5 | Samba | Despacito – Luis Fonsi Ft Daddy Yankee | 38 |
| Florent & Elsa | +4 | 29 | ||
| Adil & Ana | +3 | 29 | ||
| Julie & Adrien | +0 | 23 | ||
| Charlotte & Yann-Alrick | +0 | 20 | ||
Salsa is a strength of Bois’, as she is a five-time French champion in Latin dances.
In an episode of the SwimSwam Podcast in September, Manaudou said that he was preparing for the Short Course World Championships in December and then would take a break before running up to what would likely be his final professional meet in front of a home crowd at the European Championships in Saint-Denis.
He skipped the World Championships, however, making his next steps in the water more uncertain.
Manaudou is the latest of a number of swimmers to compete on similar dance shows. Tom Dean competed on a recent season of the British version, where he was part of the first couple that was eliminated; Adam Peaty competed on the 19th season of the same show, finishing 9th out of 15 pairs; Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds was also on the British version, finishing 10th out of 15 teams in season 20.
Manaudou’s former fiancée, Danish Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Pernille Blume, finished 3rd in season 18 of the Danish version of the show, making her the most successful crossover to date. Ryan Lochte appeared on the American version, Dancing with the Stars, where he finished 7th in season 23. He was the second swimmer to appear on that version after Natalie Coughlin, who finished 10th in season 9.
The 34-year-old Manaudou owns six Olympic medals from four Olympic appearances, including bronze in the 50 free last summer.
Other athlete participants in the season include soccer players Adil Rami and Frank Lebouef.
Didn’t Sarah Sjostrom participate in Let’s Dance also?
Flo if you’re seeing this I would pay thousands of euros to dance with you and even more for an OF
make it happen I love you my frenchi sexy pookie baby bear
Here we go again
He was surprisingly good actually. The (guy) swimmers are not very impressive in these show but Florent was much better than Camille Lacourt few years ago or Adam Peaty.
I’d prefer he start an Only Fans account instead
I can’t be the only one who started reading the title and thought it might end with “Enters ACC Champs for Cal Golden Bears.”
andrew would be devastated