BEIJING, China, August 17. SHORTLY after the conclusion of swimming at the 2008 Beijing Games, U.S. Olympian Larsen Jensen released an open letter to the swimming community. Originally seen as a retirement letter, Swimming World<\/i> helped get the word out as such. Jensen has since stated that it was not a retirement letter, only a thank you to the swimming community.<\/p>\n
Swimming World<\/i> apologizes for its part in the confusion.<\/p>\n
Here is his complete letter:<\/p>\n
To all of my family, friends, supporters and Americans who I have never met: Thank you for all the support that you have given Team USA and me. We have all been incredibly honored to represent all of you at the 2008 Olympic Games. <\/p>\n
It has been a dream come true to reach the pinnacle of sport success and each of you should consider yourselves a part of that success. I can't thank each of you enough. Today, I swam my final race and it was a tough battle. Unfortunately, I finished out of the medals… <\/p>\n
My good friend and training partner Ous Mellouli won the event, and I couldn't be happier for him. He truly deserved it and I look forward to congratulating him personally. <\/p>\n
Our final award ceremony today finished the way it started-with the playing of the United States National Anthem. I began to get choked up. I was choked up because I understand what our flag and our anthem represent. It represents freedom and opportunity. Freedom to pursue any dream-and the opportunity to make that dream a reality. <\/p>\n
Mine have become a reality, and our team is proof that America is great-and always will be. <\/p>\n
A few days ago I received an American Flag and accompanying Flag Citation from Navy Special Operations Task Force – West, Camp Shane Patton, Fallujah, Iraq. I was hoping to personally carry that flag around the pool; but that wasn't in the cards. <\/p>\n
However, that flag was carried around the pool by Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Michael Phelps, and Jason Lezak for the awards ceremony of the 400 Medley Relay. <\/p>\n
They are great Americans and they carried that flag to make all of you proud-they did a damn good job. This team has made me proud by their grace in victory and poise in defeat. A man could never ask for a finer group of men and women to be associated with than our USA Olympians. <\/p>\n
It has been an honor to represent The United States of America. I will never forget this experience and I will never take it for granted. <\/p>\n
Thanks again America for your support. I, and all U.S. Olympians, look forward to coming home to the land of the free-and never forget WE ARE THE HOME OF THE BRAVE. <\/p>\n
Regards, Larsen Jensen<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING, China, August 17. SHORTLY after the conclusion of swimming at the 2008 Beijing Games, U.S. Olympian Larsen Jensen released an open letter to the swimming community. Originally seen as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[53792],"class_list":["post-18860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-2008-beijing-olympic-games"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n