Australian Olympic gold medallist Chelsea Hodges has introduced her retirement from swimming at simply 22 years of age.
Hodges was a key a part of Australia’s 4x100m ladies’s medley relay group that gained gold on the Tokyo Olympics alongside Kaylee McKeown, Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell.
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The breastroker swam a blistering leg that helped preserve the Aussies in contact with the People, earlier than Campbell flew house to complete first and win gold.
Hodges additionally gained bronze medals within the 50m and 100m breastroke, together with 4x100m medley gold on the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Video games.
She was additionally a part of Australia’s group that broke the world document within the ladies’s 4x50m medley relay on the 2022 World Brief Course Championships in Melbourne.
Hodges set the Australian 50m breastroke document (30.05sec) in Birmingham, and nonetheless holds that document.
However after coping with ongoing hip and again accidents, Hodges has made the robust name to hold up her goggles simply weeks out from the Australian swimming trials and two months earlier than the Paris Olympics.
She has already had three severe operations in a bid to get her physique match for aggressive swimming.
“I went house and cried for a lot of hours. I believe I knew my swimming was completed,” Hodges advised the SMH of her determination to withdraw from final month’s nationwide championships.
“Being in ache on a regular basis could be very tiring. You might be mentally and bodily drained. I simply wished the ache to finish. It appears like somebody is grinding your bones any time you progress and drilling a gap into your leg.
“As soon as it began getting sore once more, I believe I knew deep down that Paris wasn’t going to occur. I’m not ecstatic that I’ve to retire … however as soon as I knew what my life would appear like if I continued, it was a simple determination.”
“Thanks Swimming. It’s with a really heavy coronary heart I announce my retirement from aggressive swimming,” Hodges wrote on Instagram.
“It’s been a difficult 18 months and retiring now is just not how I hoped this chapter of my life would finish nevertheless I imagine I’ve made the precise determination.
“Swimming has given me a lot in life and I couldn’t be extra grateful for the folks, experiences and life lengthy reminiscences I’ve by means of this sport. I needed to make the choice to retire or spoil my likelihood to be as match and as wholesome as I would really like in my future.
“In the end I’ve to do what’s finest for my future and hearken to what my physique has been desperately attempting to inform me. I’m fortunate to have the very best assist group who helped me make this determination in addition to the very best assist community in my household and mates.”
The Australian swimming trials shall be held in Brisbane subsequent month.
