MICHAEL Jamieson, the Olympic silver medalist and one of the faces of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, has retired from competitive swimming at the age of just 28.
Jamieson came to prominence when claiming one of Britain's three swimming medals at the London 2012 Olympics, finishing as runner-up in the 200m, only to famously finish second to his countryman Ross Murdoch at Tollcross. While he didn't make the 2015 World Championships or 2016 Rio Olympics, and swimming is notorious for early retirements, a formal announcement to that effect from Scottish Swimming came through on the same day where he laid bare his battle with depression, brought on by his brutal training regime.
His retirement co-incided with an interview he did with the Sunday Times yesterday, which revealed that he pushed his body so hard after London 2012 that his heart went into arrhythmia and he was taken to hospital. ''Towards the end of 2013 there were a few weeks where I didn't even go to training,'' he said. "I just kind of sat down and started asking questions, like 'What am I doing here? All I have to show for 20 years of work is a medal. What does that mean?'.
''Over time I guess it got a bit deeper than that," he added. "'Whose lives am I enriching by doing what I'm doing? What am I offering here as a person? Who's benefiting from me being here?'. When it got to that level I knew I needed to get help. From that point it just unravelled a bit.
''There were weeks I couldn't go out. I was living on a diet of anti-depressants and sleeping pills, and just even more destructive behaviour. Not speaking to anyone, completely closed off. I started taking the sleeping pills because I kept having these recurring dreams that I was walking off a building. It was then I knew it was getting quite serious.
''Those horrible dreams and thinking I didn't want to be here any more full stop, that was the final straw. Something inside clicked and said this has gone far too far. It is time to put a stop to this.''
In a statement, Scottish Swimming's performance director Ally Whike spoke of his admiration for the swimmer. "Michael has been an inspiration to all within sport - his dedication, professionalism and resilience over the years produced some outstanding performances throughout his senior swimming career," it read. "As an Olympic medallist in 2012, Michael elevated the sport in Scotland to a new level; he is an outstanding role model for any youngster making their way within the sport."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here