Florent Manaudou, Olympic Champion in the 50 free at London 2012, will be commentating World Championships in Budapest this summer. Following a silver medal at the Rio Olympics Manaudou announced on Facebook that he is taking a break from swimming. The 26-year-old wrote that Anthony Ervin and Michael Phelps both took long breaks from the pool and came back to win Olympic gold medals. He wanted to stay engaged with the water, but take a small step back to focus on the fun aspects of the sport. In September Manaudou also addressed rumors that he had taken up handball. Ten months later as a pivot of the Aix-En-Provence handball team, Manaudou confirmed that handball is “his sport.”
Florent Manaudou is the brother of French swimming icon Laure Manaudou. Laure Manaudou is a now a retired Olympic, European and World Champion. She competed in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. She was France’s first ever gold medal in women’s swimming in the 400m free at Athens 2004. She held World Records in the 200m (1:55.52, 2007) and 400m (4:02.13, 2006) freestyle.
In recent years, Laure Manaudou has been working for France Television as well. She has commentated swimming since the Barcelona World Championships in 2013. Florent is going to be joining his sister Laure this summer in Budapest, and as far as we know, will be the first pair of siblings commentating swimming on a major television network
Does anyone know if “Manaudou confirmed that handball is ‘his sport.'” means that he is retiring? Would love to see him back in the water if possible.
Nothing clear and sure but right now it’s all about handball. But he has been inspired by Anthony Ervin’s comeback so I’m pretty sure he will be back for 2020. Maybe in 2019.
He’s taking a long break, that’s for sure. I’m sure he’ll come back though.