{"id":359011,"date":"2019-03-19T07:33:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T14:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=359011"},"modified":"2019-03-19T07:46:03","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T14:46:03","slug":"olympic-gold-medalist-florent-manaudou-announces-return-to-swimming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/olympic-gold-medalist-florent-manaudou-announces-return-to-swimming\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Gold Medalist Florent Manaudou Announces Return to Swimming"},"content":{"rendered":"

2012 Olympic gold medalist\u00a0Florent Manaudou\u00a0<\/strong>is making a comeback to the sport of swimming, L’Equipe newspaper announced Tuesday. Manaudou, 28, told L\u2019Equipe newspaper he is missing high-level competition and that he is \u201cexcited to swim again and compete with the best.\u201d Manaudou is aiming for a gold medal in 2020.<\/p>\n

Manaudou will be training under James Gibson <\/strong>at Energy Standard with other world class swimmers Ben Proud<\/strong>, Chad Le<\/strong> Clos<\/strong>, Kliment Kolesnikov <\/strong>and Sarah Sjostrom<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Manaudou took a brief break<\/a> from swimming after he was beat by\u00a0Anthony Ervin\u00a0<\/strong>in the 50 free at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Manaudou competed in Handball after the Olympics.<\/p>\n

He has not competed at a major meet since Rio, only competing in a few small European meets in short course meters. He was a 20.62 from a relay start in November 2018 and was a 53.62 in the 100 IM at a meet in Istres.<\/p>\n

Manaudou won the gold medal in the 50 free<\/a> in the 2012 Olympic Games for France and also swam on France’s 4×100 free relay team that won silver in 2016. Manaudou is fifth all-time in the 50 LCM free with his 21.19 from the 2015 World Championships<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Manaudou also joins\u00a0Amaury Leveaux<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>as comeback kids in France as Leveaux announced his intentions to come back in the fall.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by J\u1d00\u1d0d\u1d07s G\u026a\u0299s\u1d0f\u0274 MBE (@jamesgibson____)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n