Lara Carroll Retires From Competitive Swimming

Published On: 29 April 2008

Lara Carroll in action at the Athens Olympics

 

Athens Olympian and World Championship bronze medal swimmer Lara Carroll has today announced her decision to retire from competitive swimming effective immediately.

 

21-year old Carroll has spent the last month pondering her future after missing out on qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games at the Telstra Australian Swimming Championships back in late March. Carroll placed fourth in both the 200M and 400M Individual Medley eventsat the Championships, results which unfortunately didn’t book a ticket to Beijing.

 

“It’s been an amazing journey for me and I’m proud to be able to say I represented my country at an Olympic and a Commonwealth Games,” Carroll said of her decision to retire.

 


Carroll, who trained under Simon Redmond at the Fremantle Port Swimming Club, reached her career highs through 2004, 2005 and 2006 when she represented Australia at the 2004 Olympic Games andwon bronze medals at the 2005 World Championships and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

 

“Swimming at an Olympics was definitely my dream since I was a young kid so to achieve that in Athens wassomething special,” Carroll said.

 

The medley swimmer went on to thank those who played significant roles in her swimming career.

 

“I’ve been able to do so many incredible things thanks to swimming and I’m just thankful that so many people supported me and gave me the opportunities to achieve what I have,in particular Simon Redmond and the Fremantle Port Swimming Club as well as my parents who have been absolute legends since the word go,” Carroll said.


“The last couple of years have definitely been the toughest of my swimming career and I couldn’thave overcome the obstacles Ididwithout the support of my boyfriend Sam.

 

“Finally being apart of WAIS and Swimming WA has been fantastic andprovided me with a great environment to enable meto achieve all I have.”