2023 French Elite Championships
- Sunday, June 11th – Friday, June 16th
- Rennes, France
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships Qualifier
- FFN Selection Criteria
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- Day 1 Prelims Recap / Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap / Day 2 Finals Recap
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32-year-old Florent Manaudou threw down the fifth-fastest time of his career on Tuesday, going 48.12 in prelims of the 100 free in Rennes. Entered with “no time” he swam in heat 1, in an outside lane, with only the clock to drive him.
Manaudou moves to #15 in the world so far this season, the highest-ranked Frenchman. Maxime Grousset is 26th with his 48.50 from the Giant Open final in March.
“I am very happy,” Manaudou said after the race. “It’s my record morning time, and my record as a blond.”
Manaudou was out in 23.08 and home in 25.04 for the fifth-fastest 100 free in his career, and the fastest since 2016. He finished three body lengths ahead of the field, with the second-place finisher stopping the clock in 52.57. “I was pleasantly surprised. I would have liked to swim 48.8 or 48.9; that would have been great. I don’t often have surprises like that anymore.”
Manaudou will sit out the final, but his performance qualifies him for the 4×100 free relay in Fukuoka. His goal in prelims was simply to “swim fast and swim well,” two objectives that he met in his race. When asked why he’s only swimming in prelims, he responded, “because it’s just one race in the day. It was already hard when I was young to swim 200 meters in a day. Now, with my age, my body type, and the training I do… It takes talent; I can do it because I’ve done a lot [of 100 frees] in my career and I know how to swim it. I think I’m one of the best because I know how not to crack at the end. And in fact, I did it perfectly this morning, with the energy that I have. Tonight, if I were to swim, I would certainly be slower.”
But the most important reason is that recovering from the 100 free is “exponentially” more difficult for him, and with the 50 free only 48 hours from now, Manaudou is giving himself time to prepare properly for his biggest race of the week.
Manaudou said he was looking forward to swimming on the 4×100 free relay at World Championships, now that he has proved to himself that he has the level. “If I had gone 49.5 I wouldn’t be interested. The thing about relays is that you need very high-level swimmers. And with several of us going 48.5 or faster, it forces the others to be at the same level.”
Manaudou’s top-10 lifetime performances:
| 100 Free | Date |
| 47.98 | 12/19/2015 |
| 47.98 | 8/22/2014 |
| 48.00 | 3/6/2016 |
| 48.10 | 4/1/2016 |
| 48.12 | 6/13/2023 |
| 48.41 | 6/15/2013 |
| 48.51 | 2/7/2016 |
| 48.55 | 6/15/2013 |
| 48.58 | 6/18/2021 |
| 48.61 | 8/21/2014 |
2022-2023 LCM Men 100 Free
Chalmers
47.15
| 2 | Pan Zhanle | CHN | 47.22 | 05/01 |
| 3 | Jack Alexy | USA | 47.31 | 07/27 |
| 4 | Maxime Grousset | FRA | 47.42 | 07/27 |
| 5 | Matthew Richards | GBR | 47.45 | 07/27 |
| 6 | Alessandro Miressi | ITA | 47.54 | 07/23 |
| 7 | David Popovici | ROU | 47.61 | 04/08 |
| 8 | Nandor Nemeth | HUN | 47.62 | 07/26 |
| 9 | Ryan Held | USA | 47.63 | 06/27 |
| 10 | Jordan Crooks | CAY | 47.71 | 07/26 |
| 11 | Flynn Southam | AUS | 47.77 | 06/16 |
| 12 | Ivan Girev | RUS | 47.78 | 07/30 |
| 12 | Sunwoo Hwang | KOR | 47.78 | 10/12 |
| 14 | Guilherme Caribe Santos | BRA | 47.82 | 12/09 |
| 15 | Jack Catwright | AUS | 47.84 | 07/23 |
Would never wanna swim next to him in a 100 free. Intimidation from the size and tattoos aside, it’ll be hard not to choke on those waves on the 2nd 50
Bro is just an alpha male sexy Greek god with pronouns him/him
I did not realize he was 21 when he won gold in the 50
Old man-audou
Manadou is on a mission. I’m calling it now, he takes the 50 free gold at home games in Paris next year.
If he or Haughey win golds in Paris I will self-immolate.
Woulda won about $10k if those three silvers were golds, lol.
Haughey is absolutely in the conversation for 100 & 200, bold of you to risk self-immolation for no reward.
Oh trust me, I know.
Lemme edit my first comment:
Instead, I got a lot of nothing.
Yeah, nobody earned anything from betting against the Aussie women that year lol (or Dressel for that matter).
I lost a huge chunk of the money I did win trying to clear it by betting on the Aussie 4×2.
So. Gotcha there too lol
Would’ve thought he was done with the 100 FR for even the relay at this point, so this definitely a bit surprising. If Marchand can develop some more top-end sprint speed in the FR, France might be medal contenders for the 400 relay in Paris. They just need a 4th to step up.
Not any particular order, but after grousset and manadou and your mention of Marchand, mehtella comes to mind next. He sat out Budapest with an injury, but he has a good resume for that relay. Rihoux split 48 low at Tokyo and he’s 8th into the final, but salvan also looks good and he’s 3rd into the final and has a better PB. I thibk regardless, if you have Marchand start training for the 4×100 relay, you will have a 4th step up in the Olympic year. Someone always does because it’s the Olympics, so if you have three stars and a solid fourth? Podium potential
Headline should have been that is was his “record as a blond” 😂💁🏼♂️
I know lol amazing quote
“record as a blonde” lmao what a chad. just crazy talented to swim that time at his age while not training for the 100.