Two-time U.S. Olympian Ryan Held has announced his retirement from competitive swimming at 30 years old.
The Springfield, Illinois native won Olympic gold medals in 2016 by swimming a finals leg of the American 400 free relay and again in 2024 by swimming a prelims leg of the same relay. Held finished 6th in the 100 free at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials, which normally would have earned him another Olympic bid, but an unusual qualifying result meant that he was left off the team because of IOC-mandated roster limits.
“Thank you swimming for the journey of a lifetime!” Held said in an Instagram post. “I could have never imagined what was in store for me when I started at the Springfield YMCA back in 2001. Nearly a quarter century later I can happily say swimming took me to 6/7 continents, 20+ countries, two Olympics, four World Championships, and most importantly, brought me lifelong friends.”
He went on to thank his college team NC State and Arizona State, where he has been training as a pro since 2021. Held also thanked his parents and his wife, the former Lexie Lupton, who was a two-time All-American swimmer at NC State.
Held was a 25-time All-American at NC State, and won 4 NCAA event titles in relays.
4x NCAA Champion:
- 2018: 800 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay
- 2017: 800 freestyle relay
- 2016: 400 freestyle relay
25x All-American:
- 2018: 200 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay, 400 medley relay, 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly
- 2017: 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay
- 2016: 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay
- 2015: 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay
23x ACC Champion:
- 2018: 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay, 400 medley relay
- 2017: 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay
- 2016: 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay
- 2015: 200 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay
He was also named the ACC Most Valuable Swimmer as both a junior and senior in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
In high school, held was a three-time Illinois High School State Champion and four-time Central State Eight conference Swimmer of the Year.
In addition too his two Olympic gold medals, he has four World Championships medals in long course and 11 in short course. While most of his international contributions were in relays, he took silver at the 2021 World Short Course Championships in both the 50 and 100 freestyles.
At his last meet, the US National Championships and World Championship Trials in June, Held finished 24th in the 50 free in 22.68. That was his first national level meet since the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials.
Held also said that he’ll continue competing in Masters swimming. “Maybe you will see me at the 2028 Trials,” he added with a wink. Held currently holds four U.S. Masters Swimming National Records in short course meters in the 50 free, 50 back, 50 fly, and 100 IM for the 25-29 age group.
Held, who holds both a Bachelor of Science in Conservation Biology and a Master of Geospatial Information Science and Technology from NC State, is now working full-time as an operational risk analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York City.
I would love to have a race against him in Masters one day.
Best of luck to Ryan in his future endeavors.
He’s a 2x Olympic champ and was SO instrumental in making NC State the juggernaut it is today. After 2021, I don’t think anyone would’ve faulted him for retiring then, but he kept it going and that’s a huge lesson for many of us. When he and his boys took down the 400 free relay American record, I knew that NCAA was gonna stick around for a loooooong time. Congrats on the retirement!
Welcome to the Swammer Club. I teared up watching you on the Olympic podium, recalling the emotion of standing with your friends and teammates, wearing USA, getting that Gold Medal and singing our anthem. Thank you for the great memories and best of luck in the next adventures.
Another great swimmer forced to get a j*b. One day this sport will allow its best athletes to avoid empl*yment.
I understand what you’re saying but he was a career relay swimmer, he was never close to “the best” in the sport
In the 2015-16 season Ryan Held was ranked as the 10th best swimmer in the US by swimcloud’s power points. Conservatively, let’s say he was the 100th best swimmer in the world by the same metric. The 101st ranked player in the NBA last season by PER, Malik Beasley, made 6 million dollars. The worst ranked NBA player by PER, Gabe Vincent, made 11 million dollars. Ryan Held was significantly better at swimming than either of these men are at basketball.
Wow. Your comment just proved your ignorance to the sport.
Congrats Ryan!
I remember him coming to our college swim meets as a Jr. high kid to cheer on his older brother that I swam with. Then a couple years later he was winning at the IL State meet. It’s been great to follow his incredible journey in the pool. Best of luck out of the pool, Ryan!
It would be interesting to hear about his transition to corporate world, I’m sure it would help other college athletes planning their next step.
Great point. There is a need for those insights. Sounds like he is doing well through the transition. That might be a good swimswam interview with him and others who have made that transition
Add Nic Fink to that convo – having the really unique exp of balancing elite training and working in his field full-time. Also, add Maya Dirado to that list….She had TOP-NOTCH academics (perfect Math SAT score, just for starters) and had that Stanford education/recruitment which helped land her a gig at McKinsey. Her career was lined-up and secured…..so she didn’t have the common question swammers face of “what comes next for me?” She was absolutely adamant that Rio would be the end of her swimming days…so she got the unique benefit of leaving the sport on her own terms AND being at the absolute height of her success (….makes me wonder if she was somewhat wishing she could continue swimming… Read more »
Looking forward to seeing you in Masters Ryan! Congratulations on an amazing career!
My favorite memory from the 2016 Olympics was Ryan Held crying on the podium when he received the gold medal for the 4×100 FR, which lead to Caeleb crying and MP and Nathan Adrian hugging them! That is how I will always remember him. If Ryan channels his emotions into whatever he decides to do in the future, he will be successful!