Sitting beside her childhood backyard pool in London, Ont., the same pool where she learned how to swim and trained in to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics, Maggie Mac Neil starts reflecting on her prolific athletic career.
Her seemingly out-of-nowhere retirement to some less than a week ago at the age of 24 was always something Mac Neil knew was coming – and was planned.
There’s no wondering what might have been, no regrets and certainly no second guessing her decision.
“I’m so at peace with my decision and I think it was just the right time for me,” Mac Neil told CBC Sports.
“I’ve only been on the national team for four or five years and it’s been a great, short run. And I think that’s the beauty of it, is that I came to do what I wanted to do and more than I ever thought I would do. I’m ready to move on and begin this next chapter, whatever that might be.”
Mac Neil says she had been thinking about her retirement for a few weeks before taking to social media and making it official.
WATCH | Mac Neil discusses retirement decision with CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux:
Host Devin Heroux sits down with Canadian swimmer Maggie Mac Neil as her home in London, Ont., just days after her decision to retire.
And yet for as practical, reasoned and pragmatic as she is about most things in her life, the action of setting into motion her retirement was still a little unnerving for the Olympic champion.
“I’ve had the message and the post in my drafts for a couple of weeks and as I was ready to hit the post, my heart rate was probably the same as it was before I walked out at the Olympics final,” Mac Neil said.
“It definitely does make it feel real having everyone else know.”
There’s no deeper explanation as to why Mac Neil retired at this point in her career. She’s won – a lot – all while working tirelessly on her academic aspirations in the background. She completed her Masters degree while competing and is preparing for Law School.
There was always an expiration date on her swimming.
‘There’s life after sport’
Mac Neil says she’s had a healthy relationship with what swimming meant to her, and that despite an immense amount of success in the pool it was never going to define her.
“Ever since I started swimming, it was always the extra curricular. And I knew that swimming was always second to school. Because there’s life after sport and I’m grateful that I was taught that lesson, and that I’ve always been driven enough educationally that I wanted to continue that while I’ve been competing,” Mac Neil said.
And when it did become too much, and it did in the wake of the Tokyo Olympics, she talked openly about her experiences, her post-Olympic blues, and that she needed to take a bit of a break.
“I’m going to miss swimming because it’s been a part of me for as long as I can remember,” she said.
“But I’d always given myself a five year clock, where I can try other sports and enjoy doing other things. I had to put so many different athletic activities on hold, just because I didn’t want to injure myself or risk my dream of going to the Olympics.”
WATCH | Mac Neil wins 100-metre butterfly gold at Tokyo Games:
In her family home’s basement there’s what her sister Clara calls the “Maggie Mac Neil shrine” – an entire shelving unit along one side of the room filled with trophies, plagues, keepsakes and binders. It’s a treasure trove of accomplishments and is somewhat overwhelming even for Mac Neil to look at – all her winning in one place.
She doesn’t keep her three Tokyo Olympic medals – gold, silver and bronze – at the house. Those special ones are in safe keeping at a local bank.
Mac Neil’s resume is stacked, including being a three-time Olympic medallist. She collected 19 world championship medals. Add another seven Pan Am Games medals, five of them gold, that she won in Santiago, Chile last fall. Mac Neil brought home five Commonwealth Games medals.
She excelled in NCAA competition, winning titles at the University of Michigan before winning more titles at LSU. Mac Neil also holds the short-course world records in the 50m backstroke and 100m butterfly.
A great teammate
And yet for all that winning, Mac Neil doesn’t want her legacy to be only about the shining pieces of hardware in her basement.
“I want to be known for how great a swimmer I was and the medals and stuff, but that’s not the most important thing,” she said.
“I want to be known for the great teammate that I was, for a laugh that could get everyone laughing in the room in a couple of seconds and that kind of thing just for the person and the teammate that I was.”
Perhaps most poignant about her retirement are the photos Mac Neil chose to accompany with her post – a young Maggie in her backyard pool, smiling in the sun. That was intentional, a throwback to where this journey started, when she fell in love with the feeling of being in the water and had no idea what it would all lead to.
“The whole goal was just to enjoy it and have fun. I didn’t really, really know how far it would come,” she said.
Mac Neil is leaving swimming when Canadian athletes are enjoying more success than ever in the pool. She has nothing but praise for her former teammates and will be cheering them on as they continue to represent the country at international events.
“I’m excited to see what Canada’s got going in the future. I mean, I think that the best swimming is ahead of them, and there’s a lot more young up and comers to keep your eyes on,” she said.
More than anything, Mac Neil wants to thank Canadians who have supported her and cheered her on throughout her swimming career.
“It’s hard to describe and put into words how grateful I am for everyone’s support, and I wouldn’t be anywhere without them,” Mac Neil said.
“I’m just so grateful for all the support for all these years.”
