Three-Time Olympian & World And European Medallist Jessica Vall Announces Retirement
Jessica Vall has retired after a long, distinguished career in which she won world and European medals over 200m breaststroke and competed at three Olympics.
The 36-year-old made the announcement at the Social Hall of the CN Sant Andreu in Barcelona alongside family, friends and media.
Also present were Fernando Carpena, president of the Spanish Swimming Federation (RFEN Aquatics), Ángel Bernet, president of the CN Sant Andreu, Ramon Bosch, president of the Catalan Swimming Federation and David Escudé, councillor for sports of the Barcelona City Council.
Guided by coach Jordi Jou, Vall competed in front of a passionate home crowd at the 2013 worlds in Barcelona.
l-r: Molly Renshaw, Rikke Moller Pedersen, Jessica Vall: Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala
A year later she won bronze at the 2014 European Championships in Berlin behind Rikke Moller Pedersen and Molly Renshaw and she would enjoy several trips to the international podium in the following years.
At the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, Russia, Vall was part of a three-way tie for bronze in the 200m breaststroke as she, Pedersen and Shi Jinglin of China all stopped the clock at 2:22.76.
She won silver behind Pedersen at the 2016 European Championships in London in 2:22.56, a national record that stands today. Later that year she went on to make her Olympic debut at Rio 2016.
Vall replicated her European second-place finish two years later at the continental meet in Glasgow behind Yulia Efimova.
She enjoyed success in the short-course pool with gold in the 200 at Copenhagen 2017, this time finishing ahead of Pedersen in a national record of 2:18.41. Vall also won bronze over 100m.
Vall competed at Tokyo 2020 with Paris 2024 the final international competition of a fine career.
Vall retires as the owner of all the Spanish breaststroke records in both the long and short-course pools bar the 50 s/c which Maria Ramos lowered to 29.73 in December 2022.