Florent Manaudou Confirms Retirement from Swimming
Florent Manaudou, one of the sport’s great sprinters and one of France’s all-time greatest swimmers, has confirmed his retirement from the sport.
Manaudou, 35, hasn’t competed since the 2024 Olympics in Paris, in which he won bronze in the 50 freestyle and bronze in the 400 medley relay. The 6-6 sprinter had always positioned that meet, not far from his hometown of Villeurbanne in suburban Lyon, as his swansong.
His lack of action since that confirmed that conviction long before Thursday’s declaration, which Manaudou made as part of his work as a commentator for the European Championships in Paris. He alluded to a ceremony on Saturday at the meet, for which he is acting as an ambassador.
Manaudou retires with six career Olympic medals, the highlight being gold in the 50 free at the 2012 Olympics in London. He’s a four-time gold medalist at long-course World Championships and has four golds and nine total medals at Short-Course Worlds. He’s an 11-time European champion across long- and short-course editions of the event.
The younger brother of 2004 Olympic champion Laure Manaudou, Florent began making a name for himself in 2012. He burst onto the scene at age 22 by winning the 50 free at the London Olympics. It was just his second major senior meet, following in the 2011 World Championships.
Manaudou won medals at four Olympics, taking silver in the 50 free and 400 medley relay in Rio in 2016, silver in the 50 free in Tokyo and then bronze in 2024. Manaudou was the first man to win four Olympic medals in the men’s 50 freestyle, having served as a flag bearer for France at the home Games.
He got to do so in front of a fervent pro-Florent crowd in Paris.
“It’s amazing,” Manaudou said then. “I wanted to enjoy the crowd tonight. I know I am in another final, I am in the program for 12 years now and I am proud of that. But the most important was to enjoy the process, to have the smile, the home Olympics is different definitely so I just wanted to smile and maybe to play a bit with the crowd.”
Manaudou was also an accomplished butterflier in his youth. At the 2012 European Short-Course Championships, he won the 50 free title to go with four relay golds. He was the World Champion in Kazan in 2015 over 50 meters of both freestyle and butterfly. He won World Short-Course Championships in free and back in 2014 after taking silver in the 50 free and bronze in the 50 breast in 2012.
His long-course European titles included the 50 free in 2014 and 2016, the 100 free in 2014 and the 50 fly in 2014.
