Olympic champion Madi Wilson has announced her retirement from professional swimming. Wilson, 30, took to her Instagram page to make the announcement, writing, “17 years ago I made my first junior Australian Swim Team, so it’s hard to put into words how I feel about announcing my official retirement today…I’m sad but ready to close this part of my life and move on to what life has next.”
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Wilson is a two-time Olympian. She broke onto the senior international stage over a decade ago, winning two medals on the Australian 4×100 and 4×200 freestyle relays at the 2014 Short Course World Championships.
Over the rest of her career, she cemented herself as a key figure on Australia’s relays, particularly on the freestyle relays, which have become increasingly competitive as the nation continues to develop strong 100/200 freestylers. In addition to her freestyle skills, Wilson was a talented backstroker. She earned silver in the 100 backstroke at the 2015 World Championships and took 8th in the Rio Olympic final.
The Rio Games were Wilson’s first Olympics. In addition to representing Australia in the 100 backstroke, she was a prelims swimmer on the 4×100 freestyle and 4×100 medley relay and earned a gold and silver medal for her role after the finals quartets finished first and second in their respective finals.
Wilson earned more Olympic hardware at the Tokyo Olympics, adding a second-straight gold medal in the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay after her prelims swim. She also earned a bronze medal as part of Australia’s 4×200 freestyle relay team, which set an Oceanian record.
Wilson was part of several world record-setting relay swims, including Australia’s performance in the 4×200 freestyle relay at the long-course meters 2019 World Championships and the short-course meters 2022 World Championships.
In addition to her success at the Olympic level, she also earned 17 long-course World Championships medals and 7 short-course World Championships medals during her decorated career. Except for her silver medal in the 100 backstroke from 2015, all her World Championship medals are from her role on relays.
Wilson last competed at the 2023 World Championships, where she placed 9th in the 100 backstroke and swam in the heats of the women’s 4×100 freestyle, 4×200 freestyle, and 4×100 medley relays, and the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay.
Last February, she announced she would miss the Paris Olympics as she was expecting a child with her fiance, Matt Short, an Australian cricket player. Wilson said at the time she was not planning to retire. The couple’s child, Austin, was born in late August 2024.
“Swimming has been the biggest part of my life and my identity for the better part of nearly two decades,” Wilson wrote in her announcement post. “It’s been the most incredible yet challenging and rewarding journey and I feel incredibly proud of the woman I’ve become and what I achieved throughout my time representing Australia.”
Madi always a fav!
Such a beautiful person !!
A great career for Madi Wilson with so many well-deserved accolades and results! A true champion and absolutely lovely person as well. With Madi’s announcement it’s impossible not to notice that the slots are now even wider open to fill the AUS Women’s 4×1 (and 4×2) free relays.
Interestingly Wilson, Emma McKeon and Bronte Campbell all swam together, and sometimes against each other through age group and of course in open competition in the 100 free. Campbell is the last woman standing from this storied group with her Olympic career also spanning longer (4 cycles). Will she be there again for LA28?
Does AUS still have the depth of talent in the 100 free (at least 4 x… Read more »
If there’s something we’ve learned – there’s always a drop around the corner from 1-2 of the younger Australians. It seems like a retirement or two sometimes allows the next tier to properly step up – think Trickett to Schlanger/Coutts to McKeon/Campbell to MOC/Harris/Jack to …?
👍 Yes you are spot on – a great summary of the strategy of building relay team longevity and success. A balance of old and new seems to be the best mix, however the older swimmers sometimes stay in the team longer, possibly to the disadvantage of the new ones. Olympic finals experience is really the key to a clutch relay swimmer and we saw that perfectly with Harris’ anchor in the Paris final after her experience in the Tokyo final.
Molly O, Meg Harris and Shayna is pretty close to an automatic win off the bat.
Need a young girl to step up to keep smashing WRs, but not to win.
Pretty sure C2 is retired as well.
Not officially, no, She has reduced her training and competition in the last 2 Olympic cycles to manage injuries and solely focus on the Olympic year. Let’s see what happens over the coming 1-2 years!
Wouldn’t be surprised if she announces her retirement after collecting her Olympic medal bonus.
Great lady, great career, enjoy your family Maddi.
What a year Madi had in 2022. Five relay world records in one year. Mixed freestyle at Budapest, 4×200 at Birmingham and 3 world records at Melbourne Short Course Worlds.
Congratulations on a memorable career.
What a wonderful athlete to work with back in 2015-2016 developing tech suits. Had an amazing Santa Clara meet with her and others like Chalmers, Bruno and Prenot! Wishing you all the best Madi from the States.
Who?
do you follow the sport?
She’s a Brazilian swimmer who won medal in 2024 Paris Olympics.
…..oh wait..
Such an inspiration Madi! She was never the huge star but she contributed so much to the team in relays and support for team members.
And I believe she is still the fastest performance in history to fail to qualify individually for the 100 free: 52.76
To clarify: Meg Harris is the fastest performer ever not to participate individually at the Olympics (52.52) but Wilson has the fastest ever Olympic trials performance not to qualify individually (52.76). Prior to her it was Emma McKeon with a 52.80 in 2016 that would have won bronze.