France’s Manaudou to Take Break from Swimming

France’s Laure Manaudou announced yesterday that she’s “taking a break” from swimming after she failed to qualify for the finals in the 200m backstroke event. This follows her last place finish in the 400m freestyle event earlier in the week, an event in which she won the Gold Medal in Athens in 2004. She also finished 7th in the 100m backstroke event this week.

Manaudou, 22, has been a favorite of the French tabloid press this past year. She broke with long-time coach Phillipe Lucas last year to move to Turin and train with her then-boyfriend/fiance, fellow swimmer, Luca Martin. When that relationship ended, compromising pictures of Manaudou started appearing around the Internet. To make matters worse, Martin is now dating Manaudou’s swimming competitor, Federica Pellegrini (who won the 200m freestyle event in Beijing this week). All of that drama has to be distracting.