France's darling Manaudou retires at 22

PARIS (Reuters) - Former Olympic swimming champion Laure Manaudou, tired of seeing her every move splashed over the local media, is retiring to enjoy life outside competitive sport.

"It's decided, I'm stopping," the 22-year-old Frenchwoman, whose turbulent life meant she never left the headlines, told Friday's issue of French daily Le Parisien.

"Since January, I learned how to look after myself," she added. "I'm enjoying the life I couldn't have before. It's silly but taking time to make up or comb my hair are things I could hardly do when I swam twice a day.

"There is also the pressure from the media. "Whatever I do, they're always spying on me."

France's darling and top sports personality, Manaudou, who won the 400 meters freestyle gold medal at the 2004 Games in Athens and also claimed world titles for the 200 and 400 freestyle, had said in January she was taking a break from the sport, which she has now made permanent.

The Frenchwoman failed to win a medal at last year's Beijing Olympics after a troublesome year in which she changed coaches and had her private life picked over in the news.

Manaudou has struggled since parting company with her coach and mentor Philippe Lucas in May 2007.

She joined the LaPresse Nuoto Club in Turin, saying she wanted a new challenge and wished to be nearer her then boyfriend, Italian swimmer Luca Marin.

The Italian club fired her three months later, citing attitude problems, and Manaudou later broke up with Marin.

She then started to train at her local club, Amberieu-en-Bugey, under her older brother's guidance. That experience was short-lived, too, and she left for Mulhouse, a bigger club, but could not settle there either and last October she joined Marseille.

Then, in January, she said she needed a break and followed her latest boyfriend, French swimmer Frederick Bousquet, to his training base in the United States.

"I have plenty of time to think about my future," she said when asked what she planned to do next.

(Writing by Patrick Vignal, editing by Ossian Shine)