World Champion Molly Renshaw has confirmed her retirement from international swimming after a career spanning more than a decade that brought her a dozen senior international medals and a pair of Olympic appearances.

Molly burst onto the scene in 2011 while swimming with Derventio Excel when she grabbed a surprise place in the GB team for the Shanghai world championships when she sliced three seconds from her lifetime best at trials to secure her senior international debut at just 15 years of age.

Drama followed in 2021, with a strange loophole int eh selection policy for the London Olympics causing her to miss out, despite being teh second fastest GB swimmer over 200m breaststroke across the trials process. Despite that setback her career blossomed, with her first international medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and a silver medal at the same year’s European Championships won with a staggering finishing burst.

Olympic selection beckoned at the second time of asking, although given her travails in 2012, she was not counting her chickens in 2016, despite demolishing her lifetime best at the trials meet and swimming well under the selection time. “People were saying ‘oh you will be fine; you’ll be on the team’, but it’s like I’ve never had the easy route on to teams. Especially after 2012, I definitely was not going to get my hopes up, so I just had to wait and see.” she said at the time.

Selection was of course assured and a 6th place finish in Rio followed, before a world title was secured in the small pool at the same year’s world SC championships. ““I couldn’t believe it; I was in shock.” She told pullbuoy afterwards, with typical self deprecation “I mean I’m really good coming in second or fourth, so to actually win something was a really good feeling!”

A second Olympics in Tokyo followed along with further European and Commonwealth medals, including the 200m breaststroke title in 2021, and a starring role with the NY Breakers in the International Swimming League.

Molly leaves the sport as the British Record holder in the 100m breaststroke long and short course and the 200m breaststroke long course – all records set in 2021 as a testament to her continued excellence and improvement throughout her career. As she summed it up in her retirement announcement, she has had a great run of it:

“I never really dreamed of achieving this much in the sport – to have gone to two Olympics and numerous World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games, it’s just been an absolute dream”

British NPD Chris Spice was glowing in his tribute, saying “Molly’s contribution to British Swimming has been exemplary throughout her decade with us. She has become one of our most experienced athletes and has always been a consistent performer, in and out of the water.

“Her achievement of medals at World, European and Commonwealth level are something she should be very proud of, as well as the senior role she has taken in recent years as a wealth of talent has come through the ranks on the women’s side of our team. All at British Swimming will wish Molly the best for whatever comes next.”

She leaves British swimming with a huge hole to fill, and all British Swimming fans will miss seeing a breaststroke that was smooth as silk. We wish her well for the future in whatever endeavours may follow.