Tokyo Olympic Champion Maggie Mac Neil Announces Retirement
Maggie Mac Neil, the Olympic champion in the women’s 100 butterfly at the Tokyo Olympics, announced her retirement from swimming on Thursday. Mac Neil bids farewell to the sport at age 24.
Mac Neil made the announcement on social media.
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Mac Neil wrote in part:
“I’ll keep it brief, but I am so grateful for all the memories, people, and places I have gotten to experience just through swimming. 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.
“I’m excited to begin the next chapter of my life journey, as I embark on discovering who I am outside of swimming.”
Mac Neil won three medals at the Tokyo Olympics, led by gold in the 100 fly. She added silver in the 400 freestyle relay and bronze in the 400 medley relay. She came up just shy of adding to that in Paris, finishing fifth in the 100 fly and the Canadian fourth in both the 400 free relay and 400 medley relay and fifth in the mixed medley relay.
She had previously signaled that the Paris Games would be her final time on the Olympic stage.
Mac Neil signaled her arrival in 2019 by winning the World Champion in the 100 fly in Gwangju. It was the only gold among eight totals medals at long-course Worlds. She eschewed individual events at the 2022 Worlds, then came back to take silver in the 2023 event in the 100 fly.
In that summer of 2022, she swam at the Commonwealth Games, winning the 100 fly along with two relay silvers and two relay bronzes. She would add the Pan Am Games crown in that event in 2023, one of five golds and seven total medals from the meet in Santiago, Chile. It made her the near simultaneous holder of four major titles.
Mac Neil is also an accomplished short-course swimmer. At two editions of the World Short-Course Championships in 2021 and 2022, she netted seven gold and 11 total medals, including consecutive titles in both the 50 backstroke and 100 fly, both events in which she set the world record.
Mac Neil compiled an outstanding collegiate career, at Michigan and LSU that included an NCAA championship in the 50 freestyle in 2023, with a runner-up result in the 100 fly and third in the 100 free. At the 2021 NCAA Championships, she won the 100 fly and 100 free at NCAAs.