Французский олимпийский чемпион Мехди Метелла объявил о завершении карьеры в 34 года

French Olympian and Olympic Silver medalist Mehdy Metella has announced his retirement from the sport at the age of 34. Metella shared the announcement on his Instagram, recounting all of the highs and lows he felt throughout his 28 years of swimming. At 6 years old, I started competing without knowing where this journey would take me. Today, at 34, it’s time for me to say goodbye to competition. 28 years of pools, training sessions, difficult mornings, competitions, victories, defeats, doubts, pushing myself beyond my limits… but above all, 28 years of memories and encounters that have left their mark on my life. 🏊♀️💙 Swimming watched me grow up. It taught me to never give up, to get back up after failures, and to always look for a way to go a little further. There were moments when I wanted to quit everything, but I always came back to this pool that, for so many years, was a second home. Today, I leave with a lot of emotion, but above all, with immense gratitude. Thank you to my family, my coaches, my teammates, my competitors, my friends, and everyone who, near or far, shared this incredible journey with me. ❤️ I don’t yet know what comes next, but I do know one thing: the 6-year-old boy who dove into his first pool will always remain somewhere inside me. One last race. One last length. And above all… thank you for everything. 🏊♀️✨ On to what comes next. ❤️ Metella won silver as a member of the French 4×100 free relay team at the Rio 2016 Olympics. In addition to his Olympic silver, Metella also secured individual glory on the major international stage by winning bronze in the 100 free at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest. In 2015, Metella was part of the French 4×100 free relay team in Kazan that won gold at the World Championships. The last meet we saw Metella race at was the French National Championships about two months ago, where he raced three events. His highest finish came in the 100 free, where he finished 10th overall in 49.71. He also added a 13th-place finish in the 100 fly (54.14), and touched 31st in the 50 fly (24.62). Metella is also the former French National Record Holder in the 100 butterfly for both short- and long-course; the records have since been broken and improved upon by Maxime Grousset. In 2023, Grousset downed the four-year-old long-course mark that Metella set in 2019 of 50.85 at the 2019 French Championships.