Paris - The first French female swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal, Laure Manaudou, has announced her retirement, French media reported Friday. "I have all the titles. I have had everything I wanted, even more than I had dreamed of," the 22-year-old Manaudou told the daily Le Parisien.
However, there may have been a more pressing reason for her retirement than the feeling that she had nothing more to prove. France Info radio reported Friday that Manaudou was expecting a child.
Neither Manaudou nor her partner, swimmer Frederic Bousquet, have confirmed the report.
Manaudou was only 17 years old when she won the gold medal in the women's 400m freestyle at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. It was France's first-ever Olympic title in women's swimming and the first gold medal for any French swimmer since 1952.
In Athens Manaudou added a silver medal in the 800m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m backstroke, making her only the second French woman ever to win three medals in a single Olympics, summer or winter.
In her career, Manaudou also won three world and nine European championships, setting world records in the 200m and 400m freestyle and the short-course 800m and 1,500m freestyle.
But her performances began to falter after she split from her longtime coach Philippe Lucas. In addition, her personal life became fodder for the tabloids.
After a breakup with her Italian boyfriend, swimmer Luca Marin, in 2007, lewd photos of the tall, attractive Manaudou appeared on the internet.
