Manaudou seeking pleasure not medals

France’s 2004 Olympic 400m freestyle champion Laure Manaudou said yesterday she was not obsessed with winning a medal at the London Games and instead was seeking to just enjoy her third Olympics.

The 25-year-old – who retired in 2009 after failing to win a medal at the 2008 Olympic Games – said she was in a totally different frame of mind compared to her previous two Olympics.

“I am in a different mindset,” said Manaudou, who is also a three-time world champion and nine-time European champion.

“I have no desire to get obsessed about winning a medal. I have more desire to enjoy myself.

“For the moment, I don’t really feel any pressure, I am relaxed and training is taking place in ideal conditions.

“I do not have that pressure of being the favourite (in the 100 and 200m backstroke). Now I am surrounded by other good swimmers (the French team)”.

Manaudou, who created a real splash when she broke American great Janet Evans’s 18-year-old world record in the 400m freestyle at the 2006 European Champion-ships, said she wasn’t risking damaging her reputation by going to the Olympics.

“I am not on the precipice of a cliff either,” said Manaudou, whose father is French and mother is Dutch.

“Even if I flop, I still qualified for the Games and that was my goal.

“My target was to be at an Olympics for the third time with people I like.”

Manaudou will be competing in London alongside her younger brother Florent, who qualified for the 50m freestyle – ironically at the expense of her boyfriend Frederick Bousquet – and who has been sharing the same lane as her in training in Dunkirk.

“It is an adventure that I am experiencing with him (Florent), it is a delight to share this with Florent. We are mutually benefiting from this,” she said.

However, she said she experienced at times pangs of regret that Bousquet wouldn’t be there.

“The hardest thing is knowing that he is staying at home. But there again his career isn’t over,” she said.