‘Sometimes you really have to let go’: can Olympians embrace retirement?

Alice Dearing knew she would retire if she failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics. So when things began to go “catastrophically wrong” for the 27-year-old Team GB swimmer in the middle of a qualifying event earlier this year, she was forced to confront not only the demise of her dream of Paris, but the end of her career.
Dearing, who made history as the first Black female swimmer to represent Team GB at Tokyo 2020, officially announced her retirement in April. The decision was not easy: “It’s a challenge for athletes because you want that high,” she said. “My whole point of trying to go to Paris was that I just wanted a better result [than] Tokyo. To finish on probably one of the worst races of my career was a bit of a weird one.”
She is not the only athlete facing such a conundrum. The Paris Olympics have seen a series of high-profile retirements – and, for many, without the swansong they might have hoped for. Max Whitlock, the most decorated British gymnast of all time, finished in fourth place in the pommel horse last weekend, having already announced this would be his last Olympics – the first time he hasn’t won gold since London 2012. “I didn’t want it to finish that way,” the 31-year-old said after the event. “Of course, I would have liked this chapter to end a little bit better but it wasn’t to be.”
Jamaican sprinting hero Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, 37, a former gold medallist competing in her fifth and final Olympics, withdrew from the 100m due to an injury. But, while Andy Murray’s final professional match ended in a defeat of 6-2, 6-4 at the Games, he seemed at peace with his decision. “I knew that moment was coming for the last few months,” he said after the match. “I was ready for it … I’m happy with how it’s finished. I’m glad that I got to go out here at the Olympics and finish on my terms.”
Life after sport can be daunting. A new British Elite Athletes Association (BEAA) survey shows almost half the country’s Paris Olympians and Paralympians feel unprepared for their next steps. Of 61 athletes asked if they agreed with the statement “I feel prepared for life after retiring from competitive sport”, only 46% agreed.
Dearing says the pressure to “finish on a high” is a real one for many Olympians. “I see it with a lot of athletes, that you just keep holding on until you get what you think you can get,” she said. “Sometimes you really do just have to let go and know that it’s OK that it didn’t work out on that day.
“I think it is kind of like a curse [for] an athlete… the mindset that you’ll keep trying and you’ll keep trying, even though sometimes it might just be better to just leave it and try to move on.”
Some have even done a U-turn on retirement: Tom Daley came back from two years away from diving to win silver in the men’s synchronised 10m platform event in Paris, while rower Helen Glover, who initially retired after gold at Rio 2016, came back for Tokyo and then won silver in Paris.
The issue of retirement is rarely spoken about between athletes, Dearing said. “It’s only when someone retires – and obviously I’m in that situation – that these conversations happen.”
The BEAA, along with UK Sport and the UK Sports Institute, offers support to athletes looking to retire, including funding, coaching and mentoring.
Dearing, who co-founded The Black Swimmers Association and the social enterprise SWYM, Swim With Your Meaning, is hoping to expand her work with disadvantaged communities and potentially explore a career in broadcast journalism now her competitive sporting career has come to an end. Her advice to others, she said, is positive. “I keep saying to people, especially those whose time is done in Paris, ‘Don’t worry, the other side is not as bad as it seems’.”