French swimmer Laure Manaudou will not defend her 200m and 400m freestyle titles at the 2009 world championships.
Former Olympic champion to take a break in 2009
French swimmer Laure Manaudou will not take part in this year's world championships, her club confirmed on Wednesday.
Manaudou, 22, failed to win a medal at the Beijing Olympics after a turbulent 2008 in which she changed coaches and had her private life scrutinised by the media.
And she has now decided against defending her 200 and 400 metres freestyle world titles in Rome next July.
"I would have preferred for her to be world champion in Rome...but she has been at the highest level for 10 years," Paul Leccia, the head of Manaudou's club, the Marseille Swimmers' Ring, told
France Bleu Provence radio.
"It is very good for a young woman of her age to take stock. She hasn't snapped. She has simply thought about her life."
Shoulder injury
Leccia revealed a shoulder problem had contributed to Manaudou's decision to sit out 2009, but that she was not considering retiring.
"She's absolutely not thinking about stopping (her career)," he added on
France Info radio. "She needs to take a break. It's a decision she took by herself.
"She realised she had neither the will nor the real possibility (to compete in 2009), especially because she has a sore shoulder."
A short statement on her official website (
wwww.lauremanaudou.fr) said: "Laure Manaudou has decided to take a break and put her sporting season to an early end."
Manaudou was Olympic 400m freestyle champion in 2004 but has struggled since parting company with coach Philippe Lucas in May 2007.
