Marta Fedina said a very touching farewell to professional sports.
The famous Ukrainian synchronized swimmer, two-time Olympic medalist in artistic swimming Marta Fedina has ended her career.
The 22-year-old athlete announced her decision on her Instagram page, publishing an extremely touching post.
“Now it's time to put an end to it. It was a beautiful story of a girl who at the age of 5 just came to learn how to swim, and became a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, a five-time world champion, and an eleven-time European champion, the best synchronized swimmer in Europe in 2022, I'll brag a little, because when, if not now?
It seemed that I had achieved everything one could dream of in my sport, but one always wants more… These two years were difficult for every Ukrainian athlete and I am no exception. I have received the bitter experience of defeats, tears and despair. It is an unpleasant feeling when you cannot achieve your goal, you stop one step away from it. This is what happened with my second Olympics, we failed to qualify as a team for Paris. We suffered a dignified defeat in order to draw conclusions and return stronger. After such “gifts” of fate, you really begin to appreciate yourself, your merits and the people who were with you throughout this wonderful, interesting and difficult path.
These people are my parents, friends and coaches, without whom nothing would be possible. In professional sports, coaches become your second parents, they know more about you and you spend more time with them than with your family. I can say with confidence that in this regard, I am an incredibly lucky person, because fate gave me two of the best families who always supported me, believed in me when I myself was in despair and in especially difficult periods simply endured me. Mad respect, love and gratitude. Also a separate “ode” to the girls on the teams (because there were many of them since childhood) they are all fantastic, some of them have become my best friends for life.
Thank you, sports, for everything I have, for the people I met along the way, what I achieved and who I became. Sports made me the person I dreamed of becoming since childhood. And I don’t regret anything. So hello world without water, it seems to me that I don’t know how to “swim” in you at all. Therefore, it is time to achieve success in you too,” Fedina wrote.
Fedina is a two-time medalist of the 2020 Olympics. At the Tokyo Games, she won bronze medals in duet and group.
Marta has 11 medals at world championships and 15 awards at European championships.
