Olympic medalist David Plummer retired from swimming this week by penning a heartfelt farewell letter to the sport he's been devoted to since he was 5 years old.
"I haven't been in the water since Rio, so this has been true for a while, but now I am saying it out loud and I am admitting it to myself. I am retiring. I am done swimming," Plummer, the Wayzata boys' swim coach and former Gophers swimmer wrote in the letter published by SwimSwam.
"This was a hard decision to make. I have defined myself as a swimmer since I was five years old, but it comes down to this: I don't want it any more. The majority of my life I have wanted to swim fast more than I wanted to breathe. I don't want it that way anymore.
"I'll never stop loving swimming and I know I will miss racing. Our sport is one of the most challenging in the world, but as they say, 'it's supposed to be hard, the hard is what makes it great.' "
Plummer won two medals at the Rio Games this past summer: bronze in the 100-meter backstroke and gold in the 4x100-meter medley relay. At age 30, he became the oldest first-time U.S. Olympic swimmer since 1904. Plummer was also the first Gophers swimmer to make the U.S. Olympic team in 52 years.
In the 100-meter backstroke, he clocked a 52.40 to finish in the top three and become the first Gophers men's swimmer to win an Olympic medal for the U.S. American Ryan Murphy won the event with an Olympic-record time of 51.97. Xu Jiayu of China earned silver with 52.31.
Plummer raced the backstroke leg of the medley relay in a preliminary round on route to winning gold.
The Oklahoma native finally earned a spot on the U.S. swim team in his fourth Olympic Trials appearance. In 2012, he placed third in the 100-meter backstroke. The top two swimmers advance to the Olympics.
