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Hackett set to announce retirement from swimming
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-27 16:37

SYDNEY - Australia's Grant Hackett was expected to announce his retirement from competitive swimming on Monday.


Grant Hackett of Australia holds his silver medal for the men's 1500m freestyle swimming final at the National Aquatics Center during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 17, 2008.[Agencies]

The 28-year-old Hackett, who is regarded among the greatest long-distance swimmers of all time, said he would make a formal announcement about his future plans at the Australian Swimmer of the Year Awards in Sydney later on Monday.

"I want to set the record straight and address my fellow peers and swimmers and everyone else who has contributed to my career and tell them what sort of path I will be following from now," Hackett told the Nine Network.

Hackett is one of the most decorated swimmers of all time.

He won seven Olympic medals, three of them gold, 10 world championship titles and still holds the world record for the 800 and 1,500 metres freestyle, his favourite event.

Hackett won the 1500 at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and again at Athens in 2004 despite competing with a partially collapsed lung.

He came agonisingly close to becoming the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three Olympics when he finished a close second behind Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli in the final at Beijing two months ago.

Hackett had already ruled out going to the 2012 London Olympics and his retirement was widely expected after he recently took up a job as television presenter in Australia.