Team GB swimming trailblazer Alice Dearing on her retirement: “I would do it all again”
The history-making marathon swimmer has opened up on her decision to retire after failing to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Swimming
Great Britain’s Alice Dearing has spoken for the first time since announcing her retirement from competitive swimming.
The 27-year-old became the first Black female swimmer to represent Team GB at the Olympics when she qualified for Tokyo 2020.
Dearing competed in the 10km marathon swim three years ago, finishing 19th.
Two days ago she took to Instagram to share the news, writing: “As I move into the next phase of my career, I'm announcing my retirement from the sport.
"Now it's about continuing to give opportunities to more and more people to help them discover their potential, whatever that may be.
"It's been fun - I would do it all again in a heartbeat."
The decision comes after Dearing did not qualify for Paris 2024, which was effectively the catalyst for her retirement.
“Truthfully, I decided to retire because I didn’t qualify for the Paris Olympics and that was my main goal coming out of Tokyo,” she told Sky Sports.
“I wanted to try and improve on my result from those Games, got to December and unfortunately didn't quality.
“I just knew that my time in the sport was done and moving forward to LA felt like a mountain to and I knew I didn’t have that in me so I just took the decision on the day to call it there.”
So, what is next for Britain’s history-maker?
Alice, who turned 27 on Wednesday (24 April), has been dipping her toes into Esports and is planning on exploring opportunities within that field.
“Swimming has given me everything that I have and I’m so grateful to it - to step away and say that I’m done with it would be completely false,” she added.
“I’m just going to explore all the opportunities that are available to me and we’ll see what happens.”