Olympic swimmer Rachel Nicol, who started out with the LA Swim Club, has announced her retirement from swimming.
Throughout a 26-year journey, Nicol has amassed an impressive list of achievements over her career, including coming in 5th place in the 2016 Olympics in Rio and first place in the 2023 Pan American Games.
“I started out swimming in Lethbridge. My family and I moved there when I was about eight years old in 2001. I stayed swimming in Lethbridge until I left for university when I was 18. It was a great system to grow up in and grow as an athlete. The community, not just the sports community, is great,” says Nicol.
There’s something special about being a part of a small, grass-roots team growing up, adds Nicol. “You don’t feel like just another cog in the machine of a big club. You get specialized attention. Your coach knows you and knows what you need. They can tell when you’re having an off day because you don’t get lost in the mix of a huge group. Coming from a smaller club allows for more care and attention to detail, day in and day out. This helped me tremendously as an athlete.”
“That was important for me moving forward, especially sticking with the sport when I was a teenager. It was a difficult time. I didn’t like swimming that much. Part of the reason I stayed with it was because of the Lethbridge community and getting professional help with the mental health side of things in Lethbridge,” says Nicol.
Nicol moved away to Texas for post-secondary education, but came back in the summers to train and prepare for the Olympics with LA Swim Club and University of Lethbridge Pronghorns head coach Peter Schori.
“We worked well as coach and athlete and had a good relationship,” says Nicol. “Preparing for Olympic trials and the Olympics is not just the pool and the coaches. It’s the ease of living in Lethbridge and it’s so important to have your family to support you.”
Right now, Nicol is completing a master’s degree in Calgary with plans to move back to Lethbridge in the near future.
Outside of the pool, Nicol has been a mentor through the organization Head to Head. Speaking to and meeting athletes from around Canada has been one of Nicol’s greatest joys as an Olympian. Nicol has also been contributing her time as a volunteer doing athlete advocacy and sport governance on the High Performance Athlete Advisory Council with Swimming Canada.
Schori is happy Nicol has found the right time to end her amazing swimming career and move to the next phase in her life. “She has inspired many athletes. In particular, young girls in our community to compete and believe in themselves in and out of sport. Rachel has been an amazing example of resilience and courage throughout her career and I am thankful to have been her coach for part of that.”
Retirement though has been a hard process for Nicol. “I planned for it as much as I could, but even with that, it’s been really challenging to navigate transition.”
“I am getting a lot of good support. There’s a lot of different support systems out there within Canada if you’re a national team athlete, so I’m really relying on those right now and my family and friends,” notes Nicol.
It was after the Pan American Games last year when Nicol thought it might be time to retire from the sport. “The next big thing was Olympic trials and the Olympics again for Paris. I wasn’t 100 per cent sure I wanted to go and do another Olympic trials. It’s just so stressful, it’s so hard and the training is a lot.”
“The Pan American Games ended up going really well,” says Nicol, as she won two gold medals. “It just felt right.”
Nicol says she feels good about the decision to retire, but the transition has been hard. “It takes a village to build up an athlete. I really owe a lot of my success to the people around me and the support systems around me, including Lethbridge and all it has to offer. And all the coaches, family and friends that have seen me along the way and supported me for such a long career.”