Missy Franklin at a mere age of 23 years old who has won five Olympic Gold medals along with making a world record in the 200-meter backstroke and two FINA Swimmer of the Year Awards; has decided to retire from the sport.
Franklin in a personal letter to the ESPN stated that she has announced this retirement due to the chronic shoulder pain, which she has been battling for more than the past two years.
During the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, Missy Franklin jumped on the scene and won the four Gold medals analog with winning the hearts of millions of Americans with her big smile and charming personality.
Franklin wrote in her letter, “This is by no means an end. I rather choose to look at this as a new beginning. Swimming has been and always will be part of my life. I will do my best to stay involved in the sporting world. However, I would be remaining in the sporting world just in a different way.”
Franklin has won 27 medals in the intentional competitions. Sixteen of these are Gold medals won from Olympics, World Championships, short course World Championships and Pan Pacific Championships.
After her massive success in the 2012 London Olympics, Franklin instead of turning professional enrolled at the University of California-Berkeley. Her team at Cal won the national title of 2015.
In 2015, she suffered from her shoulder injury, which resulted in her poor performance in the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Franklin lastly talking about her feelings of retiring wrote in the letter, “It has taken me a long time to say these words, ‘I am retiring’. Definitely, it took me a long, long time but now I am ready to say it. I am not ready t be in the pain every day. I am ready to become a wife one day and even a mother. I am ready to continue growing, be the best person every day, and be a role model that I can be. I am ready for the rest of my life.”
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