By Retta Race on SwimSwam
Three-time Brazilian Olympian Bruno Fratus confirmed via Instagram that he has officially retired from competitive swimming.
The 35-year-old bronze medalist from the 2020 Games in Tokyo cited nagging injuries and pain fueling his difficult decision.
Part of his social media message from this week read, “I’m 35 now. I am a I’ve been a swimming competitor since I was 11. And I’ve lived in a swimming pool since I was two, when I fell into one on my parents’ wedding day and almost ruined the party.
“It was my father who jumped into the water to pull me from the bottom. Then I took swimming lessons so I would no longer run the risk of drowning and the thing not only became a passion and a blessing but also turned out to be a vocation.
“These are things that leave marks too. If I were to summarize, I would say that I gave up on the Olympic Games because I was exhausted from feeling pain for so long. I no longer remembered what it was like to spend days, weeks or an entire month without pain. But I had a mission, didn’t I? I needed to be resilient. This was causing me to hurt more and be in more pain. Physical and emotional.”
We revealed earlier this year that Fratus was forgoing racing at the Brazilian Olympic Trials, thus not pursuing a 4th Olympic team bid.
His retirement announcement continued, “I’ve already had six surgeries. Three on the right shoulder alone. The most recent, in February this year, on the knee. My desire was to compete in Paris, of course. It wouldn’t have been difficult to reach the index at the Rio qualifiers in May. I was training in the United States for this.
“I was shocked to realize that swimming, which I love so much, was quickly dragging me down. That my fight was more with her than with my body, or against the timer. After so many years together, we needed to distance ourselves, take a breather. Leaving the pool became a matter of survival for me. When this became clear to me, I was at peace. By not wanting to play Resilient-Fucking-Resilient-Superman, I was being honest and consistent with myself, with my story.”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by TPT Brasil (@playerstribunebr)
Speaking with SwimSwam this week, Fratus stated his retirement decision was ‘an extremely tough call but I’m sure I haven’t left anything on the table.
‘My mind wanted to keep pushing but my body couldn’t take any more pain.
In a candid evaluation of his career, Fratus told us, “I had to push a little extra then the average swimmer, I wasn’t supposed to be a medalist, had to compensate the lack of talent with extra effort.
“Which ended up being my true talent.”
The freestyle ace hangs up his goggle having swum at least one 21-point LCM 50 free every year since 2009. He collected his 100th swim of this caliber at the 2022 World Championships.
In August of this year, Fratus was announced as head coach of Coral Springs Swim Club with wife Michelle Lenhardt also joining the staff. The future of that arrangement is unclear as the city has taken over operations of the club and its former operator sent athletes an email saying that “Effective December 20th, the Coral Springs Swim Club will stop providing coaching services to the members,” local media is reporting.
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