Laure Manaudou

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Gold medal	2004 Athens	Swimming Women's 400m freestyle

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 medal in women's swimming and the first gold medal won by a French man or woman since Jean Boiteux's triumph in the 400m men's freestyle event in Helsinki in 1952.

Manaudou 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 thus became only the second Frenchwoman to win three medals in a single Summer or Winter Olympic Games. The first was the late track and field athlete Micheline Ostermeyer in London in 1948. She is currently joint second on the all-time list of French triple female Winter or Summer Olympic medal winners along with Micheline Ostermeyer, Marielle Goitschel, Pascale Trinquet-Hachin, Perrine Pelen, Anne Briand-Bouthiaux, Marie-José Pérec, Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli and Félicia Ballanger. The all-time leader is the fencer Laura Flessel-Colovic with five Olympic medals.

She won three gold medals at the 2004 European Swimming Championships in Madrid for the following events: 100m backstroke, 400m freestyle, and the 4x100m team medley.

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On July 24, 2005 at the 2005 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 predicting that Manaudou will eventually eclipse 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. Her mother Olga Schippers is of Dutch origin, and played badminton in her native country.

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