Faithful to the appointment.
Florent Manaudou (Olympic champion in 2012 in London, silver medalist in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro) will be at the rendezvous of the final of the 50m freestyle, this Sunday in Tokyo.
In 21''53, he won his semi-final, confirming his rise to power.
He thus improved by 12 / 100th the successful time in the series which had settled down as his best time of the year (Maxime Grousset had to be satisfied with the 12th time in 21''87).
To discover
The full Olympic program
The Olympic medal table
Friday, after entering the 50m series, Florent Manaudou confided about this freediving race, between technique and state of mind:
“We must not miss much otherwise we go quickly by the wayside. I frankly want to let go at these Games and swim to swim, to have fun, to have a smile before the races, it's not every day that we do the Games so if it starts to being painful to do them is not worth it. I don't want to aim for anything because it puts too much pressure on me and it's by letting go I think I'll have a better race. I really want to take pleasure in this event, it is the Games where I enjoy the most, even if for the moment it is the ones where Ihave the least good results… ”
Read also: The medal table
This Saturday, he was smiling, his "body language" did not catch any mark of nervousness.
The months of work after the two-and-a-half-year break to try the handball adventure, put him back where he wanted to be.
He's ready for the showdown.
Florent Manaudou signed the second time in the semi-finals.
The best being achieved in 21''42 by Caeleb Dressel.
Crowned in the 100m butterfly, the American Caeleb Dressel, forty minutes later, followed up with the semi-finals of the 50m freestyle.
With success.
His third gold medal in Tokyo, after the 4 x 100m and the 100m.
