Stephanie Rice, Olympic champion, retires from swimming

Triple Olympic champion Stephanie Rice has officially announced her retirement from competitive swimming. The 25-year-old Beijing gold medallist confirmed the news via a video posted on her website on Wednesday, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Aussie champion collected three gold medals and three world records in the 200m and 400m individual medleys and the 4x200m freestyle at the 2008 Olympics. She is one of just seven Australian swimmers to win a treble in a single Games. (Also read: Ian Thorpe may lose arm, say reports)

Typically, Rice's career was hit by injuries. Having undergone three shoulder operations, she hadn't raced competitively since her unsuccessful 2012 London Olympics campaign.

"London was really tough," she said.

"There were so many things that went wrong for me in that preparation and it was like I was trying so hard to make everything so perfect and everything went wrong.

"Coming off the Games, I really didn't want to make a rash decision on my career and if I was going to keep swimming or not because I was still too emotional about the whole preparation that I'd just been through.

"I felt a lot of pressure to live up to everyone's expectations and fulfill their answers, but I knew I had to take the time for myself to get to the point where I knew 100 per cent what I wanted to do."