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

Alice Dearing, the first Black swimmer to represent Team GB, ended her career in April - and has some advice for those retiring after the Paris Olympics

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."