South African Record Holder Karin Prinsloo Announces Retirement

South African National Record holder and 2012 Olympian Karin Prinsloo has announced her retirement from competitive swimming at 26-years old.

Goodbye to 21years of high/lows,happiness/sadness,successes/failures. Thanks 2 everyone that was part of my journey😢 pic.twitter.com/CS3SBLHLOo

— Karin Buys (@PrinslooKarin) June 13, 2016

Prior to her retirement, Prinsloo was the unquestioned leader of women’s swimming in South Africa. She walks away as the National Record holder in the 100, 200, and 400 freestyles, as well as the 100 backstroke individually in long course. She was also a part of the South African National Record setting 400 free relay in long course and 800 free relay in short course.

Her 100 free and 400 free records extend to the entire continent of Africa.

While Prinsloo has left a big impact on South African swimming, her career will end quietly. She bypassed the 2015 World Championships due to injuries that interrupted her training, and she missed qualifying for South Africa’s 2016 Olympic Team – as did every other female pool swimmer in the country.

Prinsloo spoke to SwimSwam’s Loretta Race a month ago, and said that she felt burned out after the 2014 Mare Nostrum series, which continued into 2015 and left her a shortened timetable for preparation for the Olympic Trials.

At that time, she said that she hadn’t “felt that peace of stopping yet”and planned on “continuing to see if I could get back to my 2014 (personal bests) and faster.”

Prinsloo’s last competitive swim will be the 200 back, the event that earned her a spot on the 2012 Olympic Team, where she finished 10th on Sunday evening in Barcelona at the Mare Nostrum series in 2:14.04. On Saturday she took 9th in the 100 free and 19th in the 100 back.

Prinsloo posted the following longer message on her Instagram page: