Florent Manaudou secures Olympic spot with 50m freestyle win in Marseille
London 2012 gold medallist Florent Manaudou was in a class by himself dominating the final at the 'FFN Golden Tour' event on Friday.
SwimmingFrench swim star Florent Manaudou is a force to be reckoned with at the Tokyo Games this summer.
The London 2012 Olympic champion secured his Olympic spot by winning the 50m freestyle at the FFN Golden Tour event 'Camille Muffat' in Marseille, France with a season-best of 21.72 seconds.
After clocking 21.87 in the prelims the 30-year-old dominated the final on Friday afternoon distancing second-place finisher Jesse Puts (Netherlands/22.23) by more than half a second.
Manaudou revealed earlier this year that Marseille will be his training base for the Tokyo Olympics where he hopes to make the podium at a third consecutive Games.
Manaudou is back in his element, working hard for more Olympic glory after taking gold at London 2012 and clinching silver four years later at Rio 2016.
He walked away from swimming after Rio and switched sports to play handball. Two years – and a stint in France’s second division – later, Manaudou decided that it was time to return to swimming.
In November 2018, he accepted an invitation to swim at a meet with his old Marseille club Cercle des Nageur.
The rest is history.