Olympic legend Giann Rooney has made a surprising confession about her life since retiring from competitive swimming.
Rooney, who won gold and set a world record as a member of the Australian team in the 4×100-meter medley at the 2004 Athens Olympics, told Sydney radio station Nova 96.9 on Wednesday that she has stayed firmly on dry land since retiring.
She is currently in Paris for the Games as part of Channel Nine’s pool commentary team.
“I haven’t swum a lap since I retired 18 years ago,” Rooney told interviewer Kate Ritchie.
“I have absolutely no desire to jump in the pool again.”
She also reminded Ritchie and her hosts Ryan Fitzgerald and Michael Wipfli that Wednesday marked 20 years since she won the Olympic gold medal, when she competed in the relay alongside Petria Thomas, Jodie Henry and Leisel Jones.
She described the victory as “a distant memory.”
Rooney said she still thoroughly enjoyed swimming along the poolside at international competitions and reliving the feelings and memories of her great career.
Giaan Rooney (pictured center right with her gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics) says she hasn’t swum a lap since retiring
“I get a lot more nervous and excited now when I watch our athletes swim,” she said.
‘I almost feel like a proud mother on the sidelines when I see them all finish.
‘Every time I hear the national anthem, I get goosebumps and chills. It takes me back to those moments.’
“Every time I hear our national anthem, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I sing loud, proud and bad because it takes me right back to those moments.”
Since retiring, Rooney, 41, has been busy raising two children on a Queensland farm with his husband of 12 years, Sam Levett.
Rooney said the atmosphere at the Olympic swimming pool in Paris was “absolutely crazy”, with a capacity crowd of 17,000 people “putting their feet up” whenever a French athlete appeared.
When asked if it was a “slow bath” because no world records had been set yet, Rooney said she didn’t think so.
Despite no longer swimming, even for fun, Rooney says she still gets excited by the company of international competition
“The Olympics are so huge and so busy that athletes suddenly don’t have to swim for a while. We don’t have any world records broken,” she said, adding that swimmers just did what they had to do to beat the others.
She explained that a ‘fast pool’ is a pool where the water is shallow and warm, as opposed to a ‘cold pool’ which is deep and cold.
However, she said all major international competition pools should have a standard depth and temperature to ensure consistency.
Rooney also confirmed another point about the Paris Games: all medals awarded in 2024 will contain metal taken from the recently renovated Eiffel Tower.