Ukrainian world champion and Olympic medalist unexpectedly ends her career at the age of 22

Ukrainian synchronized swimmer Marta Fiedina, 22, has announced her retirement. The multiple world champion of the Ukrainian national team, two-time bronze medalist of the 2020 Olympic Games and 11-time European champion wrote a post on her Instagram saying goodbye to professional sports.

Fiedina entered synchronized swimming at the age of 5 and has made fantastic progress since then.

"These two years were difficult for every Ukrainian athlete, and I am no exception. I gained bitter experience of defeats, tears and despair. It's an unpleasant feeling when you can't reach your goal and stop one step short of it. It happened during my second Olympics as we failed to qualify for Paris as a team. We accepted the defeat with dignity so that we could come back stronger after drawing conclusions," Marta admitted.

Fiedina thanks her parents, friends, and coaches who have been with her throughout this "wonderful, interesting, and difficult journey."

"A special 'ode' to my teammates (I had a lot of them since childhood) - they are all fantastic, some of them have become my best friends in life. Sport made me the person I dreamed of becoming since childhood. And I have no regrets. So, hello, world without water, it seems to me that I don't know how to 'swim' in you at all! So it's time to make progress in you too," Fiedina wrote.

Last year in March, Fiedina won the first-ever World Cup in artistic swimming. The Kharkiv resident won gold in the technical program of women's singles.

In one of the interviews, Fiedina said that she would like to forget about the Russians forever, who take away not only arenas from Ukrainian athletes but also their lives. Back in 2014, they forced her to leave her native Donetsk.

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