Beijing Olympic Games

Updated: 2007-03-16 From: Xinhuanet

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 15 (Xinhua) — Brazils Olympic medalist Fernando Scherer announced his retirement from competitive swimming on Thursday, four months before the Pan American Games, to be held in Rio de Janeiro.

According to the 32-year-old athlete, it would take lots of training to be in his best shape and win a medal in the Pan American Games, which he did not find impossible to accomplish. However, he said to have lost the motivation to pursue the breaking of his own records.

In a career that lasted 16 years, Scherer has become one of the greatest names of Brazilian swimming. He is the holder of two Olympic bronze medals, one in the 50 meters freestyle in Atlanta 1996 and another with the Brazilian relay team in the 4×100 meters freestyle in Sydney 2000.

He has won 10 medals altogether, seven golds among them, in three participations in the Pan American Games. In Winnipeg 1999, the swimmer became the first Brazilian to win four gold medals in a sole edition of the Games, and in Santo Domingo 2003, he bet U.S. Olympic champion Gary Hall Jr. in the 50 meters freestyle.

The last official competition in which he participated was the 2005 World Aquatics Championships, in Montreal, Canada, where he ranked fifth in men’s 50 meters butterfly. In December 2006, Scherer started to feel the first signs showing that it was time to quit swimming, he revealed.