• Florent Manaudou won the silver medal in the 50m freestyle Sunday morning at the Tokyo Olympics, behind the untouchable Caeleb Dressel.

  • An immeasurable happiness for the Frenchman, who had no taste for much after Rio despite his medal.

  • Between these two podiums, a break of more than two years in his career, the last very complicated months, but a trip from which he grew up.

From our special correspondent in Tokyo,

Yannick Agnel is struggling to recover. The double Olympic champion, who commented on Florent Manaudou's race for France TV, almost apologizes for being still seized by the emotion, a good hour later. " It's the biggest. What he has just achieved there is historic for French swimming, ”he asks. He's right, of course. Manaudou is Olympic vice-champion in the 50m freestyle, his third individual medal in three editions, after stopping for two and a half years because it was either that or exploding completely. Absolutely masterful.

“Of course, a medal is great, but what I'm most proud of is to have managed to take advantage of the moment, he puts into perspective immediately.

That's why I came back, to have fun, and it was complicated.

I got a little lost along the way this year, but in the end, I'm happy with my personal trip.

"

🏊💥😍 Money in the 50m freestyle for Florent Manaudou!



🥈 He offers himself a third medal in three #Olympic Games over distance and the twentieth charm 🇫🇷 of the # Tokyo2020



Olympics Follow the Olympics live ▶ https://t.co/FQNUDtiQca pic.twitter.com/sXDY3wKcPI

- France tv sport (@francetvsport) August 1, 2021

Saturday, after his controlled semi-final, he still did not dare believe in the podium. Behind the monster Caeleb Dressel - now with 5 gold medals in these Games - he knew the race was open. The sensations were there (he had just slammed his best time of the season), but he also knew where he was last month: at the bottom of the chasm, or not far. Because if the CNM swimmer returned to the pools in March 2019, it is only during these last four weeks that he has found the key to performance.

The click?

His defeat against Maxime Grousset at the French championships in Chartres.

His first over the distance against a French for ten years, but above all a time to shoot himself, again, after the disappointments of the European Championships (5th) in May and his races in Monaco and Canet, where he never went below 22 ''.

With that, it was hard to qualify for the semi-finals in Tokyo, and then sayonara.

Not really what he had decided to dive back into.

“In Rio I said to myself 'at the end of the line it's over, finally'.

"

“Everyone told me 'I've never seen you swim so badly', he recalls. I said to myself "ah great, we are one month away from the Games, everything is fine". " Then ? “So I thought it couldn't be worse. I decided to let go, because I had not come back to suffer, neither in the water nor outside, but to experience emotions. We went to train in Antibes, outdoors, I took the sun, it made me feel good. I thought, we train 4 years, 8 years, 10 years, to live an Olympic final, and when we get there we are afraid. I said to myself, it's stupid to do that, it's stupid not to have benefited from your two medals in Rio, so take advantage, the result we will see. That's what helped me relax. "

Awareness changes everything. Manaudou decides to verbalize what he feels with those close to him, in particular his companion Pernille Blume, bronze medalist five minutes after him on Sunday morning. He also blackens small notebooks. “Because at some point, it comes to mind,” he explains. And today I felt good. Behind the [starting] block, I looked at the end of the pool, I was happy, while in Rio I said to myself "over there it's over, finally". "

Brazil, we come back to it. Second in the final for a hundredth of a second, Laure's little brother drags all the misery in the world on his shoulders. After a few weeks of reflection, his decision is made. He puts his career on hold to return to his first love, handball. And to be able to see a lot of other things, too. He signs at the Aix-en-Provence club, learns the guitar, tries his hand at acting in

Our Dear Neighbors

or

Research Section

, brings his expertise to the microphone of France TV to comment on the 2018 European Championships.

On this occasion, it leaves little room for a possible return.

“It definitely makes you want to swim.

But when I get back into the water, I feel the opposite and I never tell myself that again, he assures Le Figaro.

There is a lot of suffering and I feel like I've had my time.

Maybe I'll wake up one morning wanting to get back to it, but there's only a 0.5% chance that will happen… ”

"He initially placed the debate on adversity and not on himself"

And yet. Less than a year later, he announced his big comeback in the basins. He had a blast, emptied his head. And noticed, too, that the step would be too high to play with the pros in hand. So here he is again, with the objective of Tokyo 2020. Manaudou sets up a hybrid organization, dividing his time between the infrastructures of Energy Standard, in Turkey, and those of the Cercle des nageurs de Marseille.

In the first place, under the orders of James Gibson (the man who brought him to the title in London), he trains hard, lives, sleeps and eats swimming.

In the second, he also works but more in a cool way, allows himself to see his relatives and share an aperitif or a barbec '.

Little by little, things are getting back into place.

But already, something is wrong.

"The big question, when he comes back, is can he beat Dressel, etc."

But this is what made him lose his way for many months in misfortune, rewinds Julien Jacquier, who takes care of him in Marseille.

He initially placed the debate on adversity, performance, and not on himself.

"

In history

Manaudou is progressing, all the same.

He widens his circle, takes advice wherever he can.

Romain Barnier, who does not have him directly under his control at the CNM, or Quentin Coton, in Antibes, are always there for him.

“This is where I was good, believes the now thirty.

I knew how to take things from everyone and sort them with my experience.

"

At the start of 2021, he decided to settle permanently in Marseille, due to the pandemic and the tense geopolitical situation with Turkey.

The home stretch will be home.

Perfs are not there, morale is faltering.

Not his determination.

Jacquier deciphers the journey:

“We had long discussions on the fact that we had to succeed in finding the essence of why he was, why he did all this. He had said strong words about the fact that it made him unhappy [after Canet in particular], but he was just very afraid of not doing well at the Games. And then it gradually settled down, he did his research on his own and he awakened to how to be happy. He learned to look inside himself for what could be the source of his happiness, that's what he is most proud of. "

That's how he got to Tokyo light. “I feel it hot. He is more and more confident. And more and more relaxed too, ”slipped Maxime Grousset after the half on Saturday. "He shines, he knows why he is there," added his trainer. To make history. Happy as a kid when leaving the call room this morning, Manaudou became the first French swimmer to win three individual medals in three different Olympic Games, and the third in history only, after Gary Hall and Alexander Popov . "I am very proud of what I have accomplished," said the Frenchman. Pernille Blume then passes behind him in the mixed zone. The two embrace, and then the Dane slides, moved: “I'm so proud of him. I know him, he's a competitor. There were tough times to get to these Games,but he was there when he needed to, he's a role model. "

The couple couldn't be happier.

This is where all this inner journey led Florent Manaudou.

Julien Jacquier offers us the synthesis on a plate.

“Five years ago, it's the same medal and it's the worst day of his life.

There, he is one of his best, observes the coach.

I like the way he tells the story a lot more, and I'm a lot more optimistic for the rest of his career and his life when I see that.

"

Sport

Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games: The resurrection of Manaudou, the feat of volleyball players ... what you missed last night

Sport

Olympic Games Tokyo 2021: The end of a golden era for the French swimming relay

  • Swimming

  • Olympic Games

  • Sport

  • Laure Manaudou

  • Tokyo Olympics 2021