Australia’s most decorated medallist Emma McKeon has announced Paris 2024 will be her last Olympics.
The 29-year-old swimming legend set new benchmarks when she dominated the pool at Tokyo three years ago, winning two individual golds and two more in relay events.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Emma McKeon goes public with Olympic retirement.
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McKeon also added three bronze medals to a haul that kicked off in Rio 2016 with one gold, two silvers and one bronze.
And she will now have just one more crack at adding to her tally — and separating herself from the Australian record she shares with Ian Thorpe of five golds — later this year.
“I think swimming will always be a part of my life and has been for my whole life so far but this will definitely be my last Olympics, so I’m excited for that,” McKeon said.
McKeon, who turns 30 next month, is currently competing at the Australian Open Championships and counting down to the Australian Olympic trials in June, before Paris 2024 gets underway in late July.
“Success for me in Paris would be to swim faster than I ever have before,” she told the Olympics website.
McKeon, who in 2019 graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in public health, seriously contemplated giving up swimming after the Tokyo Olympics.
She took three months off before settling on a return to the pool.
“I think post-Tokyo, the thing that kept me going was that I felt like I had more to give and I felt like I could go faster and do better,” McKeon said.
“So that’s kind of what brought me back to the pool.
“But it’s not really motivation that I rely on. It’s just having my goals in mind and just being disciplined in knowing what I have to do to achieve those goals.”
Just when McKeon steps out of the pool for good after the Olympics remains unclear.
The news that she will not entertain swimming on until Los Angeles 2028, though, arrived with the admission that her motivation has “definitely gone up and down”.
“But I’ve learned over the years you can’t really rely on motivation to get you up every morning,” McKeon said.
“It’s more the discipline and that’s something I’ve grown more and more over the years that I’ve had in swimming.”
McKeon is in a high-profile relationship with Australian popstar turned swimmer Cody Simpson, who is hoping to make the Olympics himself before making a call on his future as a full-time athlete.
Just last week McKeon credited Simpson for helping settle her life outside swimming while sharing a desire to expand on her work with UNICEF after retiring.
“The things that make me really happy are my relationship and my family,” she said.
“Swimming is not forever, so you have to be happy outside of that. And I am now.”
McKeon missed out on the London 2012 Olympics as a teenager and will farewell the top level with just three appearances under her belt.
Her contemporaries Bronte Campbell, Cate Campbell and Emily Seebohm — all aged between 29 and 31 — have made three, four and four Olympic squads respectively.
Cate Campbell and Seebohm, who became a mother last year, are both gunning to qualify for Paris 2024 for a record fifth Olympic appearance, something no Australian swimmer has done before.