Biography of Laure Manaudou

Laure Manaudou (born October 9, 1986 in Villeurbanne) is a French swimmer. She won the gold medal in the Women’s 400m Freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics. That was France’s first ever gold in that event.

She won the silver medal in the Women’s 800m Freestyle at the same Olympics. In that race, she had a quick start but was passed down the stretch by Ai Shibata from Japan.

She won a bronze at the Women’s 100m backstroke, also at the Athens Olympics.

She has also won medals at the World Cup.

On July 24, 2005 at the 2004 Swimming World Championships in Montreal, Canada Manaudou won the Women’s 400m Freestyle. Manaudou was under world record pace for the first half of the race. In the second half of the race, Manaudou was challenged by Shibata, her rival from the Olympics. Pundits are already prediciting that Manaudou will eventually challenge the world record mark in the 400m, set by Janet Evans at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Her coach is Philippe Lucas. Her club is Melun-Dammarie.