France Judo (DR) / BFM (DR)
By Joël Pütz | Sports journalist
A true jack-of-all-trades in the world of sport, Florent Manaudou also tried judo during his youth. The swimming legend, however, had abandoned the discipline for a simple reason, as confided recently.
Now aged 33, Florent Manaudou is slowly approaching his sporting retirement. Still a double bronze medalist this summer at the Paris Olympic Games, the swimmer said goodbye to the biggest stage of sport in the best possible way, he who will have six charms in total including a magnificent gold one in London in 2012 .
Legend of the pools in France, Laure Manaudou’s brother also tried other sports during his career, he who for example took a break from swimming in order to devote himself to handball. A choice that did not come out of nowhere since he had already dipped a toe into this discipline when he was young, as he recently confided during an interview on the Youtube channel LEGEND :
I did judo, I did swimming, I did handball etc. So we had to do a sport. After me, I was very… not hyperactive I think but my parents called me the Tasmanian devil. I had too much energy so I had to channel it, so they put me in several sports and I love sports, so…
Florent Manaudou honest about his judo experience
The least we can say is that the person concerned was quite busy outside of class. From his height of 1.97 meters, he could have had a fairly impressive build in judo. But as Manaudou explains, he very quickly gave up on a possible career in this discipline for a very simple reason:
I did a year of judo but I didn’t really like it because there wasn’t enough combat, it was a bit too much gym, you see. I wanted to fight, to compete with others. In fact I don’t like losing, so I like competition just like that, what there was in swimming, what there was in handball because you have matches. In judo, I had the impression that it was a bit like gymnastics at first.
We would like to know what French judokas think about it, in particular Teddy Riner who has established himself as the world GOAT of the discipline. Florent Manaudou appreciates the challenges, trying himself against the latter could well push him to do another little stint on the tatami. For once, the challenge would be more than its size!
A career in judo? No wonder for Florent Manaudou whose lack of combat when he was young had quickly lost interest in the discipline. Fortunately, when we know what this has done in the swimming pools.
