MANAUDOU Florent

General
RETIREMENT AND COMEBACK
In 2019 he decided to return to competitive swimming after almost three years out of the sport. He had taken time away from swimming to play handball with the PAUC club in Aix-en-Provence, France. "I thought about it for a long time. I wanted to return to swimming because it was something that I missed day after day. I enjoyed doing things that I had always wanted to do, but now I jump into a new challenge, to return to competition." He got in touch with his former coach, James Gibson, and began training with him in Antalya, Turkey. He returned to competition in June 2019 in Rome, Italy. "There are no balls, no goals. But I am having more fun than in my previous spell swimming." (lequipe.fr, 19 Mar 2019; sport.francetvinfo.fr, 20 Mar 2019; boursorama.com, 19 Mar 2019; leparisien.fr, 04 Dec 2019; tokyo2020.org, 02 Apr 2020)

TRAINING CHANGES
In January 2021 he ended his partnership with coach James Gibson due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He had been splitting his time between training with Gibson in Antalya, Turkey, and France. He began working full-time with Cercle des Nageurs de Marseille coach Julien Jacquier. "It is a separation, but he [Gibson] told me that it was the best for me at the moment given what is happening. I was a little afraid to tell him and I'm glad he supported me. He remains a special coach and I will train with him from time to time in the future. I'm going to work with Julien as in 2014. Having my family, my friends, the best training group in France and coaches with whom I worked and I get along really well weighed in the balance. I'll be happier, I won't have to wonder how to get home, what flight to take, risk being stranded. I was lucky to have a second training base, it just becomes the first." (lequipe.fr, 04 Jan 2021)

CHANGE IN PHYSIQUE
He says his physique changed after playing handball while he was away from swimming. "After I came back, people told me I was more imposing. I now have stronger legs so I can push more on the block and on the wall, but I have lost elasticity. That balances things. I don't believe I am stronger, but I can generate more power from my upper body. Because I have less elasticity, I find my back a little stiff. If I can keep the strength while adding a little bit of elasticity, that would be really cool. I think I can swim faster than before. Underwater I am less strong but I swim faster." (leparisien.fr, 04 Dec 2019; midilibre.fr, 10 Dec 2019)

BUSINESS OWNER
In 2016 he opened a restaurant called La Piscine [The Swimming Pool] in Marseille, France. (lci.fr, 02 May 2017; le-grand-pastis.com, 07 Jul 2016; leparisien.fr, 19 Mar 2019)