Manaudou and Grousset get away with it and win their ticket for the Paris Olympics – Libération

The two swimmers faced each other on Thursday June 20 in the 50m freestyle final of the French championships. The former won, securing the fourth Olympic qualification of his career.

Driven by their rivalry, Florent Manaudou and Maxime Grousset both officially qualified on Thursday June 20 for the 50m freestyle of the Paris Olympic Games at the end of the final of the French swimming championships in Chartres. Since the start of the competition, which serves as selection for the Olympics, the two swimmers have been impatiently awaiting this race to finally be able to measure themselves against each other. And it was finally, the older of the two who won in 21 seconds 54 ahead of Grousset, second in 21 seconds 67. “We use each other to go faster,” explained Manaudou. “It’s good for the Games because there will be guys who will go faster, so I’m happy to have Max next to me.”

From the morning series, Manaudou made an impression by setting an impressive time (21 seconds 52), his personal best time since his return to swimming in 2019 after his detour into handball. The performance was all the more monumental as the 2012 Olympic champion had very visibly relaxed his effort in the final meters.

A race which should now serve as a reference for the 33-year-old swimmer: “I have rarely been so good, so fast with so much release. I’ve put everything together in my career, but I’ve never had so much fun doing a 50m freestyle race.” In the final, however, the tension due to the stakes was felt, he admitted. “I was very tense in my legs before the start. I think it was felt a little in my swimming. I was much more tense than this morning. But that’s okay, it was a good 50m. Doing 21 seconds 5 while tensing up a little, it’s not that bad.”

“I’m eager to”

Manaudou thus officially qualifies for his fourth consecutive Games after London-2012, Rio-2016 and Tokyo-2020. The swimmer has always won at least one medal in each edition. “It’s starting to happen. People always see me as the little brother of…, but I’ve been here for a while now,” he declared, referring to his sister Laure, Olympic champion in 2004. “My fourth Games at 33 and at home too. I’m eager to.”

Grousset, already qualified for the 100m freestyle, will compete in his second Games and hopes that the rivalry with his teammate will serve him well on the stage of the Défense Arena. “This is what will happen at the Games. We will almost all be at the same level and a very, very high level,” warned the 25-year-old swimmer. “Florent is part of the very, very high level and the fact of measuring myself against him is something that brings me a lot. Because this rivalry builds us both. And in the perspective of the Games, it is very important.

In Chartres, the New Caledonian, 2023 world champion in the specialty, will still have to get his ticket for the 100m butterfly on Friday. In the other evening races, backstrokers Mewen Tomac and Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, already qualified in the 100m backstroke, managed to add the 200m backstroke to their Olympic program. In the middle distance, Anastasiia Kirpichnikova qualified for the 800m after having already validated her tickets for the 400 and 1,500m.