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December 21, 2018

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Former Olympic, world champion Franklin retires

Five-time Olympic champion Missy Franklin is retiring from swimming at age 23, citing chronic shoulder pain that has affected her for the last 2-1/2 years.

She announced her plans on Wednesday in a letter posted on ESPN.com . Franklin’s spokeswoman says the swimmer is with her family in Colorado for the holidays and isn’t commenting further for now.

Franklin’s success and bubbly personality made her a darling of the 2012 London Olympics. At age 17, she became the first woman to win four gold medals in a single Olympics in any sport.

“It took me a long time to say the words, ‘I am retiring’,” Franklin wrote. “A long, long time. But now I’m ready. I’m ready to not be in pain every day. I’m ready to become a wife, one day a mother. I’m ready to continue growing each and every day to be the best person and role model I can be. I’m ready for the rest of my life.”

Franklin is engaged to Hayes Johnson, a former Texas swimmer.

She won six golds at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona in what would be her last major success.

Franklin failed to win an individual gold at the 2014 Pan Pacifics or the 2015 world championships. She turned pro before the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

Four months before Rio, she withdrew from a meet with shoulder pain and later revealed she was struggling with depression, anxiety and insomnia.

In Rio, Franklin failed to make the finals in either of her two individual events and won her only medal, a gold, by swimming the preliminary heat of the 4x200-meter freestyle relay. She was not one of the four Americans who stood atop the podium after the US won the final.

She had surgery on both shoulders in January and February 2017, but the pain never completely subsided.

Franklin’s last competitive race was in the 200 free at the US nationals in July. She finished third in the C final.

She is the current world record holder in the 200 backstroke and won 27 career medals in international competition.




 

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