LONDON, England, November 13. DAVID Davies, who became the first person to win Olympic medals in pool and open water swimming, announced his retirement via British Swimming's website today.<\/p>\n
Davies made swimming history when he won the silver medal in the inaugural 10-kilometer swim at the 2008 Olympics. He held the distinction as the only person to win a medal in the Olympic open water swimming venue and collect a medal in the pool as well, which he did when he won bronze in the 1500 freestyle at the 2004 Athens Games. (Davies has since been joined by Ous Mellouli as the only athletes to win Olympic medals in pool and open water swimming.)<\/p>\n
Davies has had a decade of success in swimming, beginning with an appearance at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. He's won a medal in the 1500 free at every major international competition, a list that includes not only the Olympics, but the short course and long course world championships, as well as the European championships.<\/p>\n
“I have had an amazing career,” Davies said. “I have achieved so much more than I ever thought possible when I was a youngster. I have had terrific support from my family and my coach of many years Dave Haller in Cardiff who coached me to my first Olympic medal in Athens. I had three great years at Loughborough under the guidance of Kevin Renshaw who coached me to a silver medal in Beijing. I have made some fantastic friends along the way.”<\/p>\n
Davies participated in the 1500 free final in Beijing, but was unable to get a spot in the final in 2012, finishing 16th overall.<\/p>\n
Davies told British Swimming that his next step is to work as a Performance Lifestyle Advisory\/Athlete Mentor in his native Wales, working with young swimmers to help them achieve top-level success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON, England, November 13. DAVID Davies, who became the first person to win Olympic medals in pool and open water swimming, announced his retirement via British Swimming's website today. Davies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[3,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n