Tokyo (AFP)
Rio's silver had a taste of regret, that of Tokyo has the flavor of gold: Frenchman Florent Manaudou won his bet by winning second place in the 50m freestyle on Sunday, behind the untouchable American Caeleb Dressel, after moving away from the pools until spring 2019 to devote himself to handball.
The 2012 Olympic champion and vice-champion of the Rio 2016 Olympics swam in 21 sec 55, the second fastest time of his second career, while Dressel set a new Olympic record (21.07) and the Brazilian Bruno Fratus took bronze ( 21.57).
Placed at water line n ° 5, the 30-year-old Frenchman was unable to follow the extraordinary start of the 24-year-old American, who went to win his 4th gold medal.
Dressel added that of the 4x100m medley at the end of the morning, thanks to his supersonic butterfly relay.
"Your whole life takes these 20 or 40 seconds, it's completely crazy. I did not tell myself during the competition but with hindsight, it's terrifying", then poured out the Floridian, evoking a "week not at all easy ".
His relief contrasted with the shadowless happiness of Florent Manaudou at the time of pocketing his fourth Olympic medal in three editions of the Olympics, adding the silver of the 2016 4x100m relay to his three individual podiums.
- "Enjoy" -
"What am I most proud of? To have managed to take advantage of the moment, of the present moment," said the sprinter, long tense this year by the difficulty of regaining his times of yesteryear.
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"I managed to tell myself: we train four years, ten years, fifteen years to live an Olympic final and when we live it, we are afraid, it's still quite paradoxical", added the only swimmer French medalist of these Games.
Leaping to the edge of the pool, he remained to encourage his companion, the Danish Pernille Blume, who won the bronze medal in the 50m dominated by the Australian Emma McKeon, after being crowned over the distance in Rio.
"It's incredible to be able to have two medals on the same day, almost at the same time, it's phew," said Florent Manaudou.
A few weeks ago, however, the chances of the podium seemed slim for the younger brother of Laure Manaudou, who launched the golden era of French swimming by winning the 400m of the 2004 Olympics at only 17 years old.
Surprise winner of the 50m of the London 2012 Olympics, at 21, the swimmer from Ain who trains in Marseille was beaten in Rio in 2016 by the American Anthony Erwin, for a hundredth, while he came strong from his three world championship titles in 2015.
- McKeon completes his raid -
"When I got behind the block, I said to myself: you do like in London. You smile and we'll see what happens. And I was really too good. I looked at the end of the pool, I was happy While in Rio, I said to myself, damn, over there, it's over, finally! ", He remembers.
Leaving orphan a French team in full reconstruction, the sprinter had abandoned swimming after Rio to try his luck in handball, his youthful passion, before plunging back into 2019.
If his first lap times had been encouraging, confinement had interrupted his progress.
But he accelerated at the best time, in the heats on Friday (21.65) then in the semi-finals the next day (21.53), happy to "live a fifth Olympic final" including those of the 4x100 m in Rio (silver) and Tokyo (6th) .
In the other finals of the day, which came to complete the 35 swimming events in Tokyo, the Australian Emma McKeon won in quick succession over 50 m and then with the 4x100 medley, her third and fourth coronations of these Games.
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By adding the three bronze medals won in the 100m butterfly, 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m mixed medley, she even becomes the woman with the most medals in a single edition of the Olympic Games.
Over 1,500m, the young American Robert Finke, 21, confirmed his new status as king of long distance after having already won the 800m on Thursday.
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