Canadian swimmer Maggie Mac Neil announced her retirement from the sport Thursday, marking the end of a decorated career that includes three Olympic medals.
The 24-year-old from London, Ont., made the announcement on social media, saying “Anyone who I crossed paths with never, ever told me I couldn’t achieve my goal of going to the Olympics. It’s still surreal to be able to say I’m a 2xOlympian.”
Mac Neil, who completed her master’s degree in sport management at Louisiana State University this year and wants to attend law school, had originally planned to leave competitive swimming after Tokyo but felt she missed out on swimming opportunities during the pandemic and opted to extend her career.
“I know I’m not going another quad [four-year Olympic cycle]. I’ve never wanted to [compete] to 2028,” Mac Neil told CBC Sports last February. “I’ve accomplished more than I ever wanted in swimming and by doing that, I would be happy if I retired now.”
Two months later at the Canadian Open in Toronto, Mac Neil said she wasn’t leaving competitive swimming anytime soon.
“I’m definitely not done with the sport after [the] Paris [Olympics held this past summer],” she told CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux. “I do have ambitions outside the pool. [In February] I was more talking about how I was excited to move on with that once my career has finally come to an end.”
Rick Bishop, LSU head swimming coach, said Mac Neil’s retirement will leave a big hole in the Canadian national team program.
“You’re talking about someone who you could count on year in and year out,” he told CBC Sports earlier this year. “She’s been invaluable on relays, from a butterfly and freestyle perspective.”
5th in Olympic 100m butterfly
Mac Neil, a two-time Olympian, was named the best female athlete of the Tokyo Games in 2021 after winning her signature event. the women’s 100-metre butterfly, and adding silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay and bronze in the 4x100m medley relay.
In July, Mac Neil placed fifth in her Olympic title defence in Paris. She delivered one of the fastest opening 50 metres of her career but that drained her tank in a furious rush for the wall.
Torri Huske knocked off world-record holder Gretchen Walsh for gold — 55.59 seconds to 55.63 — using a strong finish to get her hands to the wall just ahead of her teammate in a 1-2 finish for the United States.
“It’s hard enough to do once and to do it again is even harder,” Mac Neil told The Canadian Press after the race. “The last couple of months, I’ve been really telling myself that I have nothing to prove to anyone — myself or anyone else.”
WATCH | Mac Neil 5th in Olympic women’s 100m butterfly in Paris:
London, Ont.’s Maggie Mac Neil finished with a historic time of 54.05 to capture gold in the women’s 100-metre butterfly event at the FINA world swimming championships (25) in Melbourne.
Mac Neil’s time of 56.44 was 23-100ths of a second off Zhang Yufei’s bronze-worthy performance.
Mac Neil was fourth in the 4×100 freestyle relay final with Summer McIntosh, Taylor Ruck and Penny Oleksiak, 2.69 seconds after third-placed China. Also in Paris, Mac Neil was fourth in the women’s medley relay, fifth in mixed medley relay and 16th in women’s 100m free.
Mac Neil holds the short-course world records in the 50m backstroke and 100m butterfly, which she set in 2022 while retaining her world titles in Melbourne, Australia. She captured eight gold medals at the short-course world championships in two years.
Her collection of 19 career world-championship medals also includes the 2019 long-course world title in the 100m butterfly.
Mac Neil won seven career medals at the Pan American Games, with five of the golden variety last year in Santiago, Chile. She also took home the Commonwealth Games title in the 100m butterfly as part of a five-medal haul at the 2022 edition in Birmingham, England.
“She’s won the world championships, broken two world records, held an NCAA record at one time, Olympic gold, world championship gold, Pan Ams,” he said. “You name it, she’s won it,” Bishop said.
Born in Jiujang, China and adopted by Dr. Susan McNair and Dr. Edward MacNeil at age one, Mac Neil started swimming when she was two. Her mother wanted her to take swimming lessons for safety reasons because of the family’s backyard pool.
Mac Neil’s 2017 diagnosis of sport-induced asthma, which can be triggered by the swimming staples of heat and chlorine, forced a switch from longer distances to sprints.
Mac Neil became Canada’s first world champion in the women’s 100-metre butterfly two years later.
She swam collegiately for three years at the University of Michigan under Bishop, winning a pair of NCAA titles before reuniting with him at LSU. Mac Neil capped her college swimming career by setting the NCAA record in the 50-yard freestyle at the 2023 NCAA championships.
