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SPORTS Thursday 20 december 2018

Olympic Swimmer Missy Franklin retires, citing chronic pain

By The Associated Press every day to be the best
Five-time Olympic cham- person and role model I
pion Missy Franklin is retir- can be. I'm ready for the
ing from swimming at age rest of my life."
23, citing chronic shoulder Franklin is engaged to
pain that has affected her Hayes Johnson, a former
for the last 2½ years. Texas swimmer.
She announced her plans She won six golds at the
Wednesday in a letter post- 2013 world championships
ed on ESPN.com . Frank- in Barcelona in what would
lin's spokeswoman says the be her last major success.
swimmer is with her family in Instead of turning profes-
Colorado for the holidays sional, Franklin chose to at-
and isn't commenting fur- tend college at the Univer- In this Aug. 3, 2012, file photo, United States' Missy Franklin reacts to her gold medal win in the
ther for now. sity of California, Berkeley, women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012
Franklin's success and bub- and compete for the Gold- Summer Olympics in London.
bly personality made her a en Bears. She helped them Associated Press
darling of the 2012 London win the 2015 NCAA cham-
Olympics. At age 17, she pionship but developed a and later revealed she was "Looking back, surviving never completely subsided.
became the first woman nagging back injury. struggling with depression, through those eight days Early this year, she enrolled
to win four gold medals in Franklin failed to win an indi- anxiety and insomnia. in Rio was the greatest ac- at Georgia but was never
a single Olympics in any vidual gold at the 2014 Pan In Rio, Franklin failed to complishment of my ca- able to regain the form she
sport. Pacific championships or make the finals in either of reer," Franklin wrote in her displayed as a teenager.
"It took me a long time to 2015 world championships. her two individual events retirement letter. "I was Franklin's last competitive
say the words, 'I am retir- She turned pro before the and won her only medal, a able to stay true to who I race was in the 200 free at
ing,'" Franklin wrote. "A 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games gold, by swimming the pre- was as much in failure and the U.S. nationals in July.
long, long time. But now I'm and returned home to train liminary heat of the 4x200- disappointment as I had in She finished third in the C fi-
ready. I'm ready to not be under Todd Schmitz, with meter freestyle relay. She winning and being the best nal. She is the current world
in pain every day. I'm ready whom she started in the was not one of the four in the world." record holder in the 200
to become a wife, one day sport. Four months before Americans who stood atop She had surgery on both backstroke and won 27 ca-
a mother. I'm ready to con- Rio, she withdrew from a the podium after the U.S. shoulders in January and reer medals in international
tinue growing each and meet with shoulder pain won the final. February 2017, but the pain competition.q