Australia’s 2008 golden-girl Stephanie Rice will retire after the 2012 Olympics, she has announced.
Rice won three gold medals the the Beijing Olympics by sweeping the IM races and also swimming as part of Australia’s winning 800 free relay. In 2010, she pulled out of the Pan Pac Championships and the Commonwealth Games due to a worsening shoulder injury that forced her to have surgery that August.
She would come back very well this year. Not only did she qualify for the 2011 World Championships shortly after returning from surgery, she earned bronze in the 400 IM and as part of the Australian 400 medley relay.
After every Olympic Games, there is often a slew of retirements from athletes who don’t want to commit to another four years of grueling training (though, as we’ve seen, those retirements don’t always hold up). For 2012, however, it seems as though we’ve had more athletes preemptively announce their intentions to retire or not before seeing what happens at the Olympics. This includes the great Michael Phelps
