Manaudou Puts Up Fastest 50 Free Time Since Tokyo

2023 FRENCH ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Big gun Florent Manaudou has already made his presence known at these 2023 French Elite Championships. The sprint ace snagged silver in the 50m fly on day one and followed up with a super solid outing of 48.12 in the men’s 100m free to earn World Championships qualification.

Now 32-year-old Manaudou carried his momentum into this penultimate day of racing, clocking a head-turning 21.56 to take the top seed in the men’s 50m freestyle.

Manaudou landed lane 4 this morning in his fastest time since the 2020 Olympic Games. There in Tokyo, the Frenchman took silver in a time of 21.55 behind winner Caeleb Dressel of the United States (21.07).

Thus far this season, Manaudou has collected outings of 21.98 at the Belgian Championships in April followed by a slightly quicker 21.88 at the Barcelona stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour.

His 21.56 result this morning easily surpasses those performances and ties the 9th swiftest time of his career.

Florent Manaudou‘s Top 10 LCM 50 Freestyle Times

  1. 21.19 2015
  2. 21.32 2014/2016
  3. 21.34 2012
  4. 21.37 2013
  5. 21.41 2015/2016
  6. 21.42 2016
  7. 21.53 2021
  8. 21.55 2013/2021
  9. 21.56 2020/2023
  10. 21.57 2014/2015/2016

The FFN-mandated qualification time for next month’s World Championships stands at 22.07 which means Manaudou is well on his way to securing his status in this event. He’ll need to repeat this type of performance in tonight’s final as well as ensure he finishes in the top two slots.

In the meantime, Manaudou now takes over the top spot in the season’s world rankings, beating out Great Britain’s Ben Proud who held the top dog status with his time of 21.71 from April’s British Championships.

2022-2023 LCM Men 50 Free

2Ryan
Held
USA21.5007/01
3Florent
Manaudou
FRA21.5606/15
4Jack
Alexy
USA21.5707/29
5Benjamin
Proud
GBR21.5807/29
View Top 26»

In This Story

16
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

16 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mike O’Harn
1 year ago

He got extra motivation from Ervin

mcswammerstein
1 year ago

Loving this Flo resurgence. Curious what hes tweaked in his training since tokyo, based on his social, looks like hes just having fun and lifting hard

Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
1 year ago

Bye, bye Michael Andrew! No medal for you!

IM FAN
1 year ago

There is a very real possibility he gets the splash n’ dash gold at his home Olympics. Beast

Andrew
1 year ago

bro is a mammoth of a man

he is so incredibly sexy and handsome i want to be flo manaudou

Ol' Longhorn
1 year ago

He could do pull-ups with MA strapped around his waist. (MA, ffs, get serious about strength training.)
Also, obviously he’s extending his engagement to Pernille, because everyone knows the legs are first to go in marriage.

Ragnar
1 year ago

Think I know who to bet on in Paris… Bobo Gigi your crew is coming for all the smoke

Khachaturian
Reply to  Ragnar
1 year ago

where is bobo gigi?

Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
Reply to  Khachaturian
1 year ago

In dream land.

Togger
1 year ago

Great time but that photo makes you wonder what he could if he just lifted a bit.

Khachaturian
Reply to  Togger
1 year ago

he does? he has posted some of his weight training on instagram

JK15
Reply to  Khachaturian
1 year ago

Whooooosh

Scotty P
Reply to  JK15
1 year ago

In the comment section in one of the posts he notes the weight he is bench pressing is 152 kilos. Converting that to lbs that’s 335ish. He did that for 3.

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

Read More »