Three-Time Canadian Olympian Sydney Pickrem Announces Retirement

Three-time Olympian and Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Sydney Pickrem announced her retirement from competitive swimming on Thursday at the age of 28.

Pickrem, who has been a fixture on the Canadian National Team for the past decade, has not competed in nearly a year, last racing on the Mare Nostrum Tour in May 2025.

Shortly after competing on the three-leg tour, Pickrem announced that she would be skipping the 2025 Canadian Swimming Trials to evaluate the next steps in her swimming career. She has spent the past two seasons working as a full-time assistant coach at West Virginia University, a role she assumed in July 2024.

On Thursday, Pickrem announced her official retirement with an Instagram video:

 

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Despite representing Canada internationally, Pickrem was born in Florida and grew up competing in the U.S. collegiate system, primarily with the Clearwater Aquatic Team. She holds dual citizenship, with both of her parents being Halifax natives.

After winning a relay medal at the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific Championships and then claiming an individual bronze in the 200 IM at the 2013 World Juniors, she represented Canada on the senior international stage for the first time in 2014, swimming at both the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships.

She then won two individual medals at the 2015 Pan Am Games on home soil in Toronto and represented Canada at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, and then later that year, started her collegiate career at Texas A&M University, where she went on to have an accomplished career that included becoming an 11-time All-American and eight-time SEC champion.

Pickrem made her Olympic debut at the Rio Games in 2016, making the final of the women’s 200 IM and placing 6th while adding a 12th-place finish in the 400 IM.

She went on to represent Canada at two more Olympics, winning bronze as the breaststroker on the Canadian women’s 4×100 medley relay in Tokyo, and then finished off her Olympic career in Paris, placing 6th in the 200 IM and 9th in the 200 breaststroke.

After graduating from Texas A&M in 2019, Pickrem continued to train there as a professional until the pandemic, when she moved to the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.

After debuting in 2015, Pickrem competed at four more LC World Championship meets for Canada, winning a total of seven medals. She won bronze in the 400 IM in 2017, claimed three bronzes at the 2019 edition in the 200 breast, 200 IM and 4×100 medley relay, and then had her best career finish (LC) at the Doha World Championships in 2024, earning silver in the 200 IM while adding two more bronzes in the 200 breast and 4×100 medley relay.

Pickrem is a two-time short course world champion, winning gold in the women’s 200 IM and 4×200 free relay at the 2021 SC Worlds in Abu Dhabi. She won four additional relay medals at SC Worlds across the 2021, 2022 and 2024 editions.

Her personal best time of 2:04.00 in the SCM 200 IM still stands as the Canadian Record.

In 2023, after withdrawing from the World Championships, Pickrem competed at the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, winning double gold in the women’s 200 breast and 200 IM.

“On paper, it isn’t success to write home about,” Pickrem said, according to Sportsnet. “The biggest thing I’ve been able to do with my career is my consistency and my longevity.”

Pickrem’s Career Best Times (All-Time Canadian Rank):

• LCM 200 breaststroke – 2:22.63 (#4)
• LCM 200 IM – 2:07.68 (#2)
• LCM 400 IM – 4:32.88 (#3)
• SCM 200 breaststroke – 2:17.75 (#3)
• SCM 200 IM – 2:04.00 (#1)
• SCM 400 IM – 4:23.68 (#2)

National Team coach Ryan Mallette added: “She was so brazen and confident. She was so talented and always pushing to do everything she possibly could to maximize her potential.”

Pickrem is engaged to another former Texas A&M Aggie, Angel Martinez, and according to Instagram, the two are getting married over the next few weeks.