Jamieson Ponders Retirement After Lackluster Trials Performance

With the 2016 British Championships, the meet which doubled as the nation’s Olympic Trials, having now concluded, the British coaching staff is in the team selection stage. The final roster for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games is slated to be announced tomorrow, Thursday, April 21st.

Based on his performances in Glasgow, 2012 Olympic silver medalist Michael Jamieson, will indeed be left off the list. The man who raced his way to the runner-up spot on the podium in the 200m breaststroke in London at the last Olympics found himself finishing 5th and 7th in the 100m and 200m breaststroke races, respectively, this past week.

His times of 1:01.05 and 2:10.55 were well off the stricter-than-FINA British Olympic standards of 59.38 and 2:08.52, which means the 27-year-old is now at a crossroads for deciding what to do next in light of not making the Rio roster.

In Glasgow after his 200m breaststroke race, Jamieson told the press, “The last couple of years have been horrible but I wasn’t even in it.”

Alluding to a potential retirement, he continued, “I don’t know if it’s there any more … I don’t know. That could be it, I think.”

After having busted onto the international swimming stage with his 2012 silver medal, Jamieson continued his hot streak with a silver medal at the 2013 Short Course World Championships and was favored to win the same event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

However, the wins tapered off a tad for Jamieson, as the University of Stirling sensation Ross Murdoch and City of Derby star Adam Peaty have surged to the top of the breaststroking scene. Murdoch snagged the gold away from Jamieson at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, where Jamieson settled for silver.  Last spring, for the first time since 2009, Jamieson failed to qualify for that year’s major championship meet, the 2015 FINA World Championships.

In the hopes of reigniting his career, Jamieson made the move late last year from his longtime club at the University of Bath to the University of Edinburgh, however, the change didn’t render the results for which the Scot had hoped. In his first major meet, the Edinburgh International last month, he finished in 6th place in his signature 200m breaststroke event, clocking a time of 2:16.13.

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alan
7 years ago

Wouldn’t be surprised if a few more British swimmers were put off after this. What did British Swimming think would happen? Ridiculous. Sorry to see this.

G3
Reply to  alan
7 years ago

But he did not even got top 2

Weirdo
7 years ago

I think he was within the FINA A standard in the 200….not way off! Yes he was way off British cut. You should check you info before you post

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Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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