17-Year-Old Australian Abbey Connor Retires After Promising Commonwealth Games Debut

A rising young Australian talent appears to have called it quits with just over a year to go until the Paris 2024 Olympics. 

Abbey Connor, 17, signaled her retirement from competitive swimming on Instagram earlier this week, thanking her friends, family, doctors, and coach for their support while adding “see you later swimming” at the end. She trained with coach Alex Clarke at the Revesby Workers Swim Club and was also a member of the NSW Institute of Sport squad. 

“All I can say is thank you to every single person who has been with me in this wild, wild ride,” Connor wrote. “To the people behind the scenes, my family, my coach, physios/doctors and friends, your unconditional support was incredible and inspiring. You all deserve the world and so much more. See you later swimming.”

Last year, Connor shaved nearly a second and a half off her best 200-meter butterfly time at Australian Trials, earning a runner-up finish in 2:08.58 behind 18-year-old Elizabeth Dekkers (2:07.62). In August, Connor made her Commonwealth Games debut, clocking a personal-best 2:08.36 and missing out on the bronze medal by just .04 seconds behind two-time Olympian Brianna Throssell (2:08.32). Dekkers topped the podium in 2:07.26. 

The 27-year-old Throssell’s path to a third Olympics just got easier with Connor now seemingly out of contention. 

Connor burst onto the national scene in March of 2021 when the then-15-year-old went 2:12.60 in the 200 fly at the NSW State Age Championships, lowering an age record set by Michelle Ford way back in 1978. A year later, she was chosen to represent Australia at the World Junior Open Water Championships in the Seychelles. 

It looks as if Connor has competed in two meets since last year’s fourth-place finish at the Commonwealth Games: the Australian National Championships (25m) and NSW State Open Championships, where she was nearly four seconds slower than her lifetime best in the 200 fly with a 2:12.21.