“You definitely won’t see the last of me after Paris, that’s for sure.”
In an interview with Canadian national broadcaster CBC, star swimmer Maggie MacNeil talked about her goals and her timeline for leaving the sport.
MacNeil, 24, is part of a wave of young swimmers (along with names like Kate Douglass and Jake Foster) who have discussed leaving the sport in their primes to pursue other interests. In February of this year, she said that the Paris Olympic Games would be her last Olympic run, though it didn’t necessarily mean she would retire immediately thereafter.
She reaffirmed the plan to not immediately retire after the Games and also declared her goal of repeating as the Olympic gold medalist in the 100 fly, her best event.
No woman has ever won two Olympic gold medals in the 100 fly, let alone back-to-back gold medals.
“It’s stressful and pressure, obviously, to put it out there, to say that’s what I want, but I think by saying it out loud it makes it seem more real and makes you think about it in practice to motivate me every single day.”
MacNeil also talks about reframing what swimming has looked like for her after winning gold, when you’ve “accomplished the biggest thing in sport.”
“That’s something I learned after the last Olympics. You’ve gotta learn to love it and do it because you love the sport.”
Watch the full video clip below:
Nice! Thanks for sharing. Hope she has a great Olympics!
Torn because i would love to see Torri Huske beat everyone and win gold, but I’m rooting for Maggie. She’s so much fun to watch and she always brings her best to each race
Torri is so over-hyped. She peaks too early and crumbles under pressure at these big meets.
Which American record do you have?
How does going a 55.7 in the Olympics fall under crumbling? And also being the 100 fly world champion in 2022?
and also going 55.68 literally three days ago? lol
2021 Olympics … lost bronze medal by 0.01 in the 100 Fly at 17
2022 NCAA‘s as a freshman 2nd in 200IM and 2nd in 100 fly
2022 Worlds 6 medals including 3 gold and 3 Bronze (tied for the most by a US woman. Gold in 100 Fly and bronze in 100 Free
2023 NCAA‘s 3rd in 100 fly, 2nd in 100 free, 2nd in 200 IM
2023 Worlds … we don’t like to talk about that one. But she still got 4 medals.
Torri took too many classes in the spring at one of the most prestigious universities in the country. It wasn’t choking, it was exhaustion.
That mixed medley was regrettable… it was on Torri but the… Read more »
The world’s nearsighted population immediately related to Maggie McNeil, her face alight with joy after she’d squinted hard to learn her Tokyo results.
LOL. True