Kaio Almeida, a four-time Olympian and Short-Course World Champion, announced his retirement from swimming this week.
The Brazilian will turn 36 this month. He had returned from retirement after the 2012 Olympics and a brief political career, earning a spot on the Brazilian team at the Rio Olympics, where he finished 14th in the men’s 200 fly. He had been working toward the Tokyo Olympics but ended that journey this week, announcing his second retirement “with great joy” via Instagram.
Almeida’s first major competition was the 2003 World Championships when he was just 18, part of a pioneering generation of Brazilian male swimmers alongside the likes of Cesar Cielo and Thiago Pereira. He won silver medals at that summer’s Pan American games and set his first national/continental records the following year.
Almeida won gold at the 2006 Short-Course Worlds in the 100 fly and did the butterfly double at the 2007 Pan Am Games in Rio. His meet record in the 100 fly stood until 2015. He would win relay golds at the Pan Am Games in 2011 and 2015.
Almeida was a regular finalist in the butterfly events at world championships. He finished just outside the semifinal cut at the 2004 Athens Olympics, then finished seventh in the 200 fly in Beijing (along with 15th in the 100). In London, he slipped to 17th in the 200 fly and 28th in the 100 fly, leading to his first retirement.
The native of Joao Pessoa returned to international competition in the summer of 2015, earning Pan Am Gold in the 800 free relay (via the heats) and finishing fifth in the 200 fly. At the Rio Olympics, Almeida finished 14th in the 200 fly.
Almeida still holds the Brazilian and South American record in the 200 fly (1:53.92) as well as the short-course 100 fly mark (49.44). Both date to the tech-suit era of 2009.