Love, Politics, cold hard cash, and another world record for Laure Manaudou
Laure Manaudou logs a world record in the 400 free SCM with a time of 3:56.09. [link] I watched her performance live on Eurosport this morning and from the dive to the finish she was never less than a body length ahead of her world record. How do I know that? The broadcast graphic of a superimposed line which denotes the world record was chasing her from beginning to end. For most of the race she was two body lengths ahead. At the close a full body length.
Laure Manaudou is the pride of French athletics right now. The French team is sponsored by TYR, and Manaudou is obviously French. Now, at the final I think I saw her wearing an Italian cap with an Arena logo on it; I am not sure. She definitely did so at a qualifier. Her excuse was that her only cap ripped and she had to borrow one. Whose cap did she borrow? Swim News suggests she borrowed the cap of her Italian boyfriend, Luca Marin, who had upset Hungarian superhero, Laszlo Cseh, in the 400 medley.
Manadou will be paid 69,000 euros or $100,000 by the French Federation. This money, or the bulk of it, according to French Federation President, Francis Luyce, comes from their partners.
I am sure the appropriate people will be spanked. Read it here.
Update: Dec. 9, 5:21 PM. The Italian press is playing up the love angle mentioning nothing about Arena or TYR. Leave it to the American press to play up both the money and the marketing angle but leave it to the Italians to talk of passion and relationships. If you can read Italian or you want to use babelfish to translate, here is the link
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