Libby Trickett (nee Lenton) has retired. The Olympic and world champion and record holder had ticked off many of her targets and has decided that enough is enough.
Swimming Australia announced: "The 24-year-old plans to spend more time with her family and look to pursue a career in the media with Network TEN and ONE."
At a press conference, Trickett said: “It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for almost a year now, and after much consideration and speaking with my family and close friends I know that I am ready to move on to the next stage of my life and career." The sprinter is married to former swimmer Luke Trickett. Here's a good piece with Mr Trickett by Michael Cowley at the SMH; and a good on Lenton by Nicole Jeffrey at The Australian.
"Swimming is such a great sport to be involved with and has been a huge part of my life for such a long time," said the sprinter. "Through swimming I’ve been able to travel the world doing something that I love and this great sport has provided me with so many fantastic memories and opportunities.”
“I would like to thank everyone for their fantastic support throughout my career, especially my family and coaches Stephan Widmer and Grant Stoelwinder.”
Swimming Australia President David Urquhart said Trickett’s contribution to the success and culture of the Telstra Dolphins Australian Swim Team has been outstanding since she set out on her senior international career back in 2002.
“Libby was a member of the team from a young age, but always conducted herself with the utmost professionalism and respect for the sport,” said Urquhart. “She has been a member of the leadership group for the last five years, and in that sense we hope she can stay involved with the sport at some level, to pass on her great knowledge and experience.”
“Her legacy and success at Olympic, World Championship and Commonwealth level is a tribute to her hard work and commitment over a long period of time and while it’s disappointing she won’t be swimming for Australia again, her achievements and contribution will be well remembered. All we ask of our swimmers is to work hard and give their best, and Libby is a great example of what happens when these two values come together.”
From the other side of the line, the media saw a swimmer who never failed, come rain or shine, to find a smile, to be polite, to be gracious and courteous to rivals (and friends as she saw many of them), to answer as she found. On suits, it took a hard knock in 2009 to deliver the answer to the most difficult of questions faced by the 2008-09 generation of swimmer: to swim in that suit or not (see below). Lenton, later Trickett, was a worthy role model for her peers and those who will follow her.
She joined the Dolphins as 17-year-old Libby Lenton in 2002 for the Oceania Championships in Noumea. Just a year later she won her first major medal: a bronze in the 50m butterfly at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona, a warm-up to Olympic relay gold with teammates in the 4x100m free in Athens.
Montreal 2005 brought three gold medals and - via success at a home Commonwealth Games - returned to Melbourne for 2007 worlds as a favourite in a number of events. She handled the pressure brilliantly and was, with Laure Manaudou (FRA), top of the heap as winner of five gold medals. The week after, she became the first woman to crack 53sec over 100m freestyle but she had to wait a while longer for that to become official: her 52.99 blast was swum in a lane next to Michael Phelps at the Duel in the Pool between Australian and the US, and did not, therefore meet FINA race regulations, the international federation decreed.
Trickett retires as holder of eight of the top 15 best times ever set over 100m freestyle, only one of those, No 8 on the list, clocked in a textile suit, in accordance to the trend in the shiny suits era. Her first solo Olympic gold did not come her way on sprint freestyle, those titles going to Britta Steffen (GER), but instead in the 100m butterfly in Beijing 2008, where she also won gold in the 4x100m medley.
"I sincerely believe I left at a great point for me," Trickett told reporters in Sydney. "I don't feel like I was getting slower and don't feel like I was getting any less competitive at all. I'm retiring on my own terms. I'm not being forced to."
The 100m free had lon been her favourite event and she had worked for Olympic gold. It was not to be. London 2012? "Ultimately if I was to swim on that would probably be the only reason for me to swim on," the former world record holder and world champion in the event added. I can't justify doing that for four years and then maybe walking away and not having achieved that. I've asked myself that question, 'Am I okay with not winning an Olympic gold medal in the 100m freestyle? And the answer was 'I am okay with that'. When you say that, that means you're ready to move on."
In Rome at 2009 worlds she struggled with her own conscience on the issue of shiny suits, breaking from her sponsor Speedo for the first time in her career to wear the arena X-Glide in relays in an acknowledgment of what for so long she could not express: different shiny suits provide different levels of benefit for different swimmers in different events on different stroke and distances.
Nowhere was that more obvious that in a 100m free final in which Steffen took a second away from the LZR-clad woman who held the world record before and after the advent of the LZR Racer and until the adidas Hydrofoil slipped into the race pool. The silver went to young Fran Halsall (GBR), a great talent for now and the future but ready in July 2009 to Hydrofoil past the woman who had led the Commonwealth until Rome? Yes, in a Hydrofoil. In a line-up of traditional suits that boost not the wearers? We will never now.
Swimming Australia notes the truth of it too when it states: "Trickett’s final swim - an incredible 51.01 seconds for the 100m freestyle [WR short-coure, Hobart, August] - withstood a recent onslaught at the World Cup series and looks set to stand for many years to come." That may indeed be the case, and largely because the shiny suits will be no more.
The world of swimming doffs its cap to Libby Lenton, long-term mentor Stephan Widmer and Grant Stoelwinder, not to mention he unsung heroes in the shadows of a swimmer's development.
Germany: Triple world championships silver medallist Annika Lurz, wife of Stefan, her coach and sister-in-law of marathon ironman Thomas Lurz, has retired from the race pool. “It was a beautiful time but now I have to concentrate on my future“ “ said the 30-year-old from Würzburg who developed into an international medal winner late in her career. “Swimming gave me a lot but now I feel relieved now that I've made my decision.” Lurz won two European and 14 national titles. Lutz Buschkow, director of the German federation (DSV), said: “We thank Annika for her engagement in swimming and for the successes she brought to our sport and we wish her all the best for the future.”
