Living swimming legend, Laure Manaudou has begun a more than surprising reconversion.
Laure Manaudou is one of the greatest French sportswomen of all time. In the 2000s, when she was 14 years old, trainer Philippe Lucas spotted her and convinced her parents that he would make her a champion. Mission accomplished since the swimmer won three medals at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004: gold in the 400m freestyle, silver in the 800m freestyle and bronze in the 100m backstroke.
But his career ended quite early. If the performances were still there until 2007 with numerous medals in the European and world championships, her change in personal life and her departure for Italy, notably for love, changed the swimmer’s career. , since she will go through the Beijing Olympics without a single good time and will finally end her career in 2013.
Since then, Laure Manaudou has remained discreet, focusing first on the launch of a swimsuit brand, then a perfume, before returning to a role as consultant with France TV, notably during the last Olympic Games in Paris 2024. But in recent weeks, her announced reconversion has caused a stir since the Frenchwoman has launched into kinesiology.
“How to manage in a group, how to help people psychologically ? It’s something I’m passionate about.”explained the former swimmer in Femme Actuelle. Thanks to her notoriety, Laure Manaudou could thus give great visibility to this discipline which is still unknown to some. But above all which is not recognized by the scientific world, far from it.
According to its defenders, cited in a report from the Order of Physicians in 2023kinesiology is a “psycho-corporeal rebalancing technique” which is based on a “communication muscle test”. She “can help with physical problems […] and psycho-emotional, such as stress or difficulties with learning, sleeping or eating.
Problem: this pseudoscientific practice, which is part of so-called “alternative” medicine, is on the radar of Miviludes, the interministerial mission for vigilance and the fight against sectarian abuses. According to the Order of Physicians, kinesiology puts certain patients at risk of deviating from essential treatments, “which can lead to a loss of luck or a vital risk”. The institution also warns about “the practice of charlatanism” And “illegal practice of medicine”.