Florent Manaudou during the European Championships in Budapest, May 23, 2021. – Insidefoto / Sipa USA / SIPA
Two months before the Olympic Games, Florent Manaudou is not yet at the level where he hoped. The Frenchman, who aims to win back gold in the 50m in Tokyo, only took fifth place in the European Championships in 21”81 this Sunday in Budapest.
Three more meetings before the Olympics
The 2012 Olympic champion and 2016 Olympic vice-champion of distance, who lived in the Hungarian capital his first international championship in long course since his return to swimming in the spring of 2019, missed his final. He had swam in 21”67 in the half, a time that would have allowed him to win the silver medal behind the Finn Ari-Pekka Liukkonen (21”61), who finally won in front of the Briton Benjamin Proud ( 21”69) and the Greek Kristian Golomeev (21”73).
For the Marseille sprinter, the European meeting was the first in a series of four competitions that he will do in a month before the Olympics. The meetings in Monaco (May 29 and 30), Canet-en-Roussillon (June 1 and 2) will follow, and the French Championships in Chartres, from June 15 to 20. Maxime Grousset, the other French swimmer entered in the 50m final, placed seventh, in 22”02.