Two-Time German Olympian Franziska Hentke Announces Retirement

Photo Courtesy: Foto Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia /Insidefoto

Two-Time German Olympian Franziska Hentke Announces Retirement

Franziska Hentke, who qualified for the Olympics twice and won a silver at the 2017 World Championships, has announced her retirement at the age of 32.

The German swimmer made the Rio and Tokyo Olympics in her specialty, the 200 butterfly. She finished 11th in the semis in 2016 and 13th in Tokyo, missing out on the final each time. She also finished 21st in the 400 individual medley in Rio.

Hentke announced her decision on Instagram.

 

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A post shared by Franziska Hentke (@franziskahentke)

“My last big goal was to be in the finals in Tokyo,” Hentke wrote. “Even though it wasn’t enough in the end, I’m proud that I was able to stand on the starting block again at my second Olympics. I am proudly looking back on an intense, educational, challenging and above all a wonderful journey.”

Hentke broke onto the continental scene in 2009 with a bronze medal in the 200 fly at the European Short-Course Championships. She would win that event in the 2015 and 2017 editions of the meet, around a silver in 2013. She did not swim at the 2019 meet in Glasgow. She also won the 200 fly at the 2016 Long-Course Euros in London. (At that meet, Mireia Belmonte of Spain, who won the gold medal in Rio and was the only European finalist in the Olympic event, didn’t make it out semis.)

Hentke started the next Olympic cycle strong at Worlds in 2017, when she won silver in the 200 fly between Belmonte and Katkina Hosszu. It complemented a bronze from the 2014 Short-Course Worlds and put her briefly atop the world rankings.

Hentke offered thanks to her family for sustaining her through 26 years as a swimmer. The native of Wolfen also thanked her current coach, Bernd Berkhahn, as well as supporting clubs SC Magdeburg, OSP Saxony-Anhalt and the German swimming federation.

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