Canadian Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil announced her retirement from swimming on Thursday.
The women’s 100m butterfly gold medallist at the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games revealed the news in an Instagram post, alongside a photo of herself swimming as a child.
“The little girl above never dreamed that this is where her love of swimming would take her,” Mac Neil wrote.
“I am so grateful for all the memories, people and places I have been able to experience through swimming. I am excited to start the next chapter of my life and discover who I am outside of swimming.”
The 24-year-old swimmer from London, Ont., won a full medal haul in Tokyo after helping the relay teams win silver and bronze.
Mac Neil’s five gold medals at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, represent the most by a Canadian athlete at a single Pan American Games.
Mac Neil placed fifth in the butterfly and was part of two relay teams that finished fourth at the recent Paris Olympics.
“No one I’ve ever met has ever told me I couldn’t achieve my goal of going to the Olympics,” Mac Neil wrote. “It’s still surreal to be able to say I’ve been to the Olympics twice.”
This year, she earned a master’s degree in sports management from Louisiana State University.
Mac Neil was born in China and adopted by Dr. Susan McNair and Dr. Edward MacNeil. Mac Neil’s mother wanted her to take swimming lessons for safety reasons, due to the family’s backyard pool.
In 2017, a diagnosis of sports-induced asthma – which can be triggered by heat and chlorine – forced Mac Neil to abandon long distances in favour of sprints.
Two years later, Mac Neil became Canada’s first world champion in the 100-metre butterfly.
Mac Neil, who is nearsighted and does not wear contact lenses or protective glasses, has repeatedly seen a meme showing her squinting at the scoreboard in Tokyo as she tries to decipher her result.
“I like to think it helps me because I don’t see where everyone else is and I can focus on my own race,” Mac Neil said before the Paris Olympics. “That was definitely the case in Tokyo.”
“I’ve been sent this meme at least three times in January, even though it’s been three years.”