Laure Manaudou

Infobox Swimmer
swimmername = Laure Manaudou

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caption = Laure Manaudou in 2005
fullname = Laure Manaudou
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nationality = FRA
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birthdate = birth date and age|mf=yes|1986|10|9
birthplace = Villeurbanne, France
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height = height|m=1.78
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Laure Manaudou (born October 9, 1986 in Villeurbanne) is a French Olympic, world and European champion swimmer. She is the daughter of a French father and a Dutch 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 freestyle 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 x 200m 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.

2004 European Swimming Championships

Manaudou won three gold medals at the 2004 European Swimming Championships in Madrid, Spain, for the 100 meter backstroke, 400 meter freestyle, and the 4×100 meter team medley races.

2005 World Swimming Championships

On 24 July 2005 at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships 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.

2006 European Swimming Championships and new 400m freestyle world record

On May 12, 2006, Manaudou broke Janet Evans's world record in the women's 400 meter freestyleswim 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).

2007 World Swimming Championships and new 200m freestyle world record

Manaudou broke the 200 m freestyle world record at the 2007 World Swimming Championships in Melbourne 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.

2008 Olympics

In the 2008 Summer Olympics, 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 stuggling to keep up. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/swimming/7555416.stm] 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.

Personal life

The weekly magazine "Paris Match" 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 May 9, 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 August 6 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. [ "Manaudou-Marin, il giallo delle foto hard" - La Repubblica, 17 dicembre 2007]

Accomplishments

*WR : World Record
*ER : European Record
*NR : National Record
*CR : Championship record

Career Best Times

*200 Free-1.55.52 (4th fastest swimmer ever)
*400 Free-4:02.13 (2nd fastest swimmer ever)
*800 Free-8:18.80 (4th fastest swimmer ever)
*100 Back-59.50 (6th fastest swimmer ever)
*200 Back-2:06.64 (4th fastest swimmer ever)

References

External links

* [http://www.lauremanaudou.fr/ Official website] fr icon
* Swim Rankings [http://www.swimrankings.net/index.php?page=athleteDetail&athleteId=1542463 profile]
* Videos & Results on [http://www.swimpassion.net/Athletes/lauremanaudou.html SwimPassion.net]
* [http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1819129_1819134_1825749,00.html "Laure Manaudou"] , n°27 on "Time"’s list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch"