Bob in the head and mustache a la Mark Spitz, Florent Manaudou casually lent himself to the game of questions and answers, this Thursday morning, at the Odyssey. The sprinter of the French team (31) talked about his start to the season, his winter goals, the Paris Games, where he will end his career in 2024, or even, more surprisingly, his great interest in data, which now he uses a lot with his coaches.
Engaged in four distances this week, the London Olympic champion (2012) will attack this Friday with the 50 freestyle, facing his new rival on the national scene, Maxime Grousset.
How do you get to Chartres?
It is quite difficult to evaluate. I haven’t competed in short swims in two years. I hope to swim a little faster than in Berlin (note: recent World Cup stage, 21”05) and a little slower than at the World Championships (in December in Melbourne). In any case, I hope to go to Australia very soon. There I set myself time goals, but it’s not the same anymore. If I can’t, it’s not a big deal. I don’t just look at the clock.
Kick-off of the French short course swimming championships on Thursday at the Odyssée de Chartrex
How was your start to the season?
The post-Budapest (note: eliminated in the semifinals of the World Cup) was difficult for me. At the beginning of July I didn’t even feel like swimming. My vacation in Australia has helped me get better. Indeed it is paradoxical, but after the Tokyo Games I needed to do a year “in between”, to take the time to discover my new training place (note: Marseille), the coaches … But it is also something that does not match me. I don’t know what to do with only half training. But if I had trained thoroughly, maybe in two years, I would have been exhausted… Well, I’m happy to be in a different dynamic. There are more certainties, we know how we want to work. We have put a lot of things in place, between the tests of phisio Albrecht, now the ring that I have been using for two weeks …
“Basically, I see the impact that training has on my body. With all this data, you can’t go wrong in the work cycles. While you shouldn’t just focus on that, it’s a help.”
What exactly is this ring?
I explained it to my father for a quarter of an hour! He gives me access to the data that matches my training load data. It concerns, for example, sleep cycles and their quality, beats per minute, heart rate … Basically, I see the impact that training has on my body. With all this data, you can’t go wrong with duty cycles. While you shouldn’t just focus on that, it’s a help. I’m crazy about data, I always want to do better and this allows me to take the right path.
Last night, for example, I slept at 8:52, so I’m pretty good (laughs). More seriously, I don’t look at them every day, but the data can act as a wake-up call if I’m tired or otherwise. And behind it, we can adapt. The high level is adaptation.
Chartres will host the French championships in the 25-meter pool at L’Odyssée
Were you attentive to all these parameters at the beginning of your career?
When you are younger, you can afford things, you recover more easily, you don’t need them. The data probably represents 1% of performance, but it helps to stay focused. So just because I’m wearing a ring doesn’t mean I’ll be swimming fast. But I want to fix everything so as not to have regrets and to do the best I can in Paris. I choose things from all over and this helps me to be strong in my project. Today I feel a bit like a tennis player, with my staff around me, so many different people. I don’t want to suffer anything in the last two years of my career.
Is there still enthusiasm for France in the short term?
Yes, because the excitement comes with the level of adversity. I know that Max (Grousset) is better off on the long course than on the small one, so we’ll see if he will make the switch here and swim really fast, which would be good, because he pushes me. In any case, I know he will be the one I will partner with in France for the next two years, and that will help us perform.
Every time we dive, we put on the wetsuit, we want to go fast. But we must not forget that the final goal is the Games. It is better to be Olympic champion and sixth at the world championships than the other way around!
Is the small tub a stage or a real goal?
The goal remains the large basin. But of course I will want to swim fast in Melbourne. Every time we dive, we put on the wetsuit, we want to go fast. But we must not forget that the final goal is the Games. It is better to be Olympic champion and sixth at the world championships than the other way around!
Paris, do you think about it every day?
No, I mainly think about creating my training to perform. Here, we are in a bit of a hurry, in quotes, because there are worlds in December. But I can’t wait to be in January to have the time to fix everything, to do the terminal, to work hard, without telling me that I have a race in two months. Of course we think about Paris from time to time, but there are still some stops ahead.
