By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
Dutch Olympian and 27-time World and Olympic medalist Sharon van Rouwendaal announced her retirement from swimming earlier today via an Instagram post.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Sharon van Rouwendaal (@svrouwendaal)
In a multi-slide post, van Rouwendaal detailed some of her trials and “proud” moments through her career, saying that she first told her parents “One day I want to become Olympic champion” at the age of five.
She went on to talk about various moments of her career where she says “I rose above myself and reached beyond my limits”, including winning the World Championships bronze in the 200 backstroke in 2011, anchoring the Dutch women’s 4×200 freestyle relay at the 2014 SC Worlds to a World Record, and her first Olympic gold medal in 2016 when she won the open water 10k by 18 seconds.
Van Rouwendaal made headlines at last summer’s Olympic Games in Paris after she won the 10k gold medal for a second time, becoming the first athlete in history to win two Olympic golds in the event, and the first swimmer to win three total medals, when combined with her silver from Tokyo 2020.
She swam the race in Paris for her beloved dog, Rio, who died in May. After his death, she spent two weeks out of the water in grief. When she touched in first overall, she got out of the water and kissed her tattoo of his pawprint.
At the end of her post she wrote “So today I announce: I am ending my professional swimming career.
“I do this with peace, pride, and gratitude. I leave the sport not only as a double Olympic champion, but as the most successful open water swimmer in the world by winning on the biggest stage and earning three Olympic medals. The Goat. The Queen of Open Water Swimming.
“This is not the end, but a new beginning… And to all swimmers, athletes, and dreamers: remember, medals are won with your body, but true victories are won with your mind.”
Over the course of her career, she won 27 World Aquatics and Olympic medals, and she has been a cornerstone of World Open water swimming since her first Worlds medal in 2015. Of her 10 World Championships medals, three are gold (2022 – 10k, 2024 – 5k, 10k), five are silver, and two are bronze. She also has three SC World Championships medals from Doha 2014 where she won gold in the 4×200 freestyle relay, silver in the 400 free, and bronze in the 800 free.
She also has one Swimming World Cup medal, a silver in the 800 freestyle, and nine Open Water World Cup medals.
She will retire as the Dutch record holder in 10 individual events and one relay:
400, 800, 1500 free (LC & SC) 200 back (LC) 200 fly (LC) 5000 freestyle (LC) 4×200 freestyle relay (SC).Van Rouwendaal took the year off to focus on giving swim clinics around the world and stated at the end of her post that her retirement is “not the end, but a new beginning” and that she will remain in the world of swimming while sharing her passion through “clinics, camps, talks, online coaching, mentoring, and shoulder-injury prevention warmups.”
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