Triple 2008 Olympic gold medalist Stephanie Rice is considering a return to the pool to compete for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, according to Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper.
Rice ruled out contending for a third Olympic Team in 2016, but after failing to medal in London (she was 4th in the 200 IM and 6th in the 400 IM), she has spent the last year building her impressive dry-side career, including numerous television, modeling, and endorsement deals. She now, though, is saying that she’s back in the water aiming to perhaps end her career on a high note at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland from July 23rd to August 4th, 2014.
Those two IM races at the Commonwealth Games could be a great battle: in the 200 IM, between Rice, her countrymate Alicia Coutts, and Great Britain’s Hannah Miley. The 400 IM would also be a great match-up between Miley and Rice, among others, but the 200 IM could be one of the top races of the whole meet.
Rice’s comments made no commitment to the Pan Pac Championships in the Gold Coast, Australia, which comes about two weeks after the Commonwealth Games; remember that in 2010, Rice was entered, and then scratched out of, the 2010 Pan Pac Championships in Irvine, which was the first we learned the true severity of the shoulder injuries that have plagued her.
In December of 2011, Rice announced that she would be retiring after the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Rice will turn 26 next June, shortly before these Commonwealth Games.