Melbourne, July 21 (ANI): Australia's ace swimmer Stephanie Rice has said she is ready to defend her three Olympic gold medals, but admitted that shoulder injury has put a question mark on her continuance after the Games.
Rice has been dogged by shoulder problems for the past three years, but when a tear in the tendon in her right shoulder was discovered late last year it seemed certain to derail her Olympic campaign.
"It's so hard for me to tell [whether she will retire after London]. Regardless, I'll have to have six weeks off to rest my shoulder, because it's not right. I don't think I will need to have surgery on it to repair the tendon, but it just needs to recover and let it relax. It will be good for me to take that time to really just settle down and think about it all," she said.
"I would love to keep swimming but I don't know if I could physically do it. Everything that I have put into this prep has been so tough. I can't even tell you how tough it's been and if I have to do this every year . . . I just don't think I could," Rice said.
"I have given everything I can to this prep and I think I really need a good break to reassess whether I could do it again or not. I don't think if it was the same as this I could do it again. I love swimming. A lot of people lose love for the sport. I love training, I love racing, I love travelling, but to get to this point has been so hard."
Rice's coach Michael Bohl said the shoulder has been a big concern for Rice in the lead-up to her arrival in England.
"One day it's good, next day it's a bit tender and sore. It's nowhere near as bad as it's been, but it's still not 100 per cent perfect.
"There's just a little bit of tenderness and when she does something hard it's normally sore the next day. She's very good now of knowing when to push and when not to push, so she's managing herself better, I think, than I'm managing it," Bohl said. (ANI)
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