Four-times Olympic champion De Bruijn retires

AMSTERDAM, Mar 13 (Reuters) Four-times Olympic champion Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands announced her retirement in an interview with Dutch news agency ANP.

De Bruijn won the 50 and 100 metres freestyle and the 100m butterfly at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 50 freestyle in Athens four years later. She also won four world titles, three in Fukuoka, Japan in 2001 and one in Barcelona in 2003.

''My career is finished and I reached the top,'' De Bruijn said yesterday. ''I am 33 years now and a granny in swimming, while my body isn't recovering so well like it did in the past.'' Coached by Jacco Verhaeren, who also works with Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband, and later by American Paul Bergen, De Bruijn broke a number of world records and still holds the best ever times for the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly.

''I will miss the excitement of hearing the Dutch national anthem on the podium, but achieving that is not something that comes easy,'' she said.

''I didn't win any easy gold medals and I am not going to the coming Olympics to finish seventh. I always want to win and that is something I did enough.'' REUTERS AD BST0819