Decorated Canadian swimmer Maggie Mac Neil announces retirement at 24

Canadian swimmer Maggie Mac Neil announced her retirement from the sport on Thursday, concluding a remarkable career that includes three Olympic medals.

The 24-year-old from London, Ontario, shared her announcement on social media, stating, "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 2x Olympian."

Mac Neil, who earned her master’s degree in sport management at Louisiana State University this year and plans to attend law school, initially intended to retire from competitive swimming after the Tokyo Olympics. However, she felt she missed out on opportunities during the pandemic and chose 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."

Just two months later, at the Canadian Open in Toronto, Mac Neil indicated that she wasn’t leaving competitive swimming just yet.

"I'm definitely not done with the sport after [the] Paris [Olympics]," 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, the LSU head swimming coach, remarked that Mac Neil's retirement will create a significant gap 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."

Mac Neil, a two-time Olympian, was recognized as the best female athlete of the Tokyo Games in 2021 after winning her signature event, the women’s 100-metre butterfly, along with earning silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay and bronze in the 4x100m medley relay.

In July, she finished fifth in her Olympic title defense in Paris, delivering one of the fastest opening 50 metres of her career, which ultimately drained her stamina in the final push to the wall. Torri Huske edged out world-record holder Gretchen Walsh for gold, clocking 55.59 seconds compared to Mac Neil's 55.63 seconds, achieving 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."

Her time of 56.44 was just 23 hundredths of a second shy of Zhang Yufei’s bronze-winning performance.

Mac Neil was also fourth in the 4x100 freestyle relay final alongside Summer McIntosh, Taylor Ruck, and Penny Oleksiak, finishing 2.69 seconds behind third-placed China. Additionally, she placed fourth in the women’s medley relay, fifth in the mixed medley relay, and 16th in the women’s 100m freestyle at the Paris Olympics.

Mac Neil holds short-course world records in the 50m backstroke and 100m butterfly, set in 2022 while defending her world titles in Melbourne, Australia. She earned eight gold medals at the short-course world championships over two years and boasts a total of 19 career world-championship medals, including the 2019 long-course world title in the 100m butterfly.

Throughout her career, Mac Neil won seven medals at the Pan American Games, five of which were gold last year in Santiago, Chile. She also secured the Commonwealth Games title in the 100m butterfly, contributing to her 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," Bishop stated. "You name it, she's won it."

Born in Jiujang, China, Mac Neil was adopted by Dr. Susan McNair and Dr. Edward MacNeil at age one. She began swimming at the age of two because her mother wanted her to take lessons for safety reasons due to the family’s backyard pool.

After being diagnosed with sport-induced asthma in 2017, which can be aggravated by heat and chlorine, Mac Neil shifted her focus from longer distances to sprints.

Two years later, she became Canada’s first world champion in the women’s 100-metre butterfly.

Mac Neil swam collegiately for three years at the University of Michigan under Bishop, securing a pair of NCAA titles before reuniting with him at Louisiana State University. She concluded her collegiate swimming career by setting the NCAA record in the 50-yard freestyle at the 2023 NCAA championships.