Decorated Canadian swimmer Hilary Caldwell announces retirement

Canada's Hilary Caldwell celebrates bronze in the women's 200m backstroke finals during the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Friday, August 12, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

VICTORIA – Canadian swimmer Hilary Caldwell has announced her retirement, ending a career that saw her step on the podium at the Olympics, world championships and Pan American Games.

Caldwell, from White Rock, B.C., claimed the bronze medal in the 200-metre backstroke at the 2016 Olympic Games — one of six medals won by Canada’s women swimmers in Rio de Janeiro.

She took gold in the discipline at the 2015 Pan Am Game sin Toronto and bronze at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Caldwell also swam in the heats, but not in the final, as Canada won silver in the women’s 4×100 medley relay at the 2016 short-course world championships in Windsor, Ont.

Looking back on her career, the 27-year-old Caldwell said the Olympic medal in Rio was the pinnacle.

"An Olympic medal is something I dreamed about since I was a kid," she said in a release. "It took me a while before I was really OK with that performance because it wasn’t the time I wanted.

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