Florent Manaudou Turning Back The Years and The Scales, Swimming PBs at 33

2024 FRENCH ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, June 16 – Friday, June 21
• Chartres, France
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet
• Entry List
• Results
• Live Stream
• Prelims: Day 1 |Day 2 |Day 3 |Day 4 |Day 5
• Finals: Day 1 |Day 2 |Day 3 |Day 4

On Day 3 of the 2024 French Elite Championship, which is also serving as their Olympic Qualifying event, Florent Manaudou recorded a new personal best in the 100 free with a time of  47.90.

While new personal bests are not rare in swimming, to hit one at age 33, ten years after your previous one, is something else. In 2014, at the European Championships, Manaudou recorded a time of 47.98 to win the event. This week, he casually dropped under 48 again, stopping the clock in a new PB by .08.

In comparing the two splits, it seems as if Manaudou just got faster, as he opened and closed faster than he did ten years ago. One could be forgiven if they thought with the Frenchmen’s focus on the 50 that he would go out faster and die a little, but Manaudou’s success can likely be attributed to a new focus on his health.

In speaking to franceinfo, Manaudou revealed that in his quest to earn a fourth consecutive medal in the 50 free at the Olympics, he had dropped from 109 kilos (240 lbs) to 101 kilos (223 lbs)

“I backtracked, telling myself that I was going to try to keep my strength and lose weight to have a better weight-to-power ratio.The fact that I lost muscle mass made me a little more elastic, a little more mobile,  I’ve also done a lot of mobility work over the last two months. Maybe I’ll go a little slower at 15 metres because I’ll have a little less inertia and less weight, but if I can get out with speed, it will be easier to take it to the end.”

Florent Manaudou would not be the first swimmer in the 30s to win a medal in the 50 free. In 2016 at the Rio Olympics, the Frenchmen was out-touched by Anthony Ervin, who at the age of 35, won gold.

Manaudou this morning (6/20) posted his fastest time since 2016 in the prelims of the 50 free, recording a time of 21.52, faster than his silver medal-winning performance at the Tokyo Games. Manaudou is set to race in the finals, and we’ll see just how many more years he will wind back.