With pride in and out of the water, Erica Sullivan announces her retirement

With pride in and out of the water, Erica Sullivan announces her retirement

Never one to bury the lede, Erica Sullivan bounded into the mixed zone on Wednesday evening and went straight for the goal.

“I’m retired,” the Olympic silver medalist in the 1,500 freestyle at the 2021 Olympics offered spontaneously. Like everything else with Sullivan, beyond the headline-grabbing joy, there was lots of substance.

Sulivan reached the final of the 1,500 freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium, finishing seventh in 16:29.88. She was well behind the pace of Katie Ledecky, with whom she traveled to Tokyo in 2021 for the first-ever women’s 1,500m at the Olympics. Ledecky clocked 15:37.35. Katie Grimes finished second in 15:57.77.

The 23-year-old clocked 15:51.18 at the 2021 Omaha Trials, then 15:41.41 in a superb swim to come within four seconds of Ledecky’s pace for the gold medal in Tokyo.

It was with considerable understatement that Sullivan called it “a good series.”

“It’s an honor to have the career I’ve had,” Sullivan said. “And I feel like so many kids dream of reaching this point and achieving the things that I’ve done in my career. So the fact that I was able to do it with the Sandpipers and with Texas, each stop and each team kind of represents where I am in the sport, I’m happy with that.

Sullivan will withdraw from the free 800 at trials. She had telegraphed this decision a long time ago. She is older than most of her college peers, and although she still has a year of college left in Texas and will always be a part of its swimming community, she is done with the pool, having postponed twice his college education due to the COVID-19 postponement of the Olympics and the death of his father.

Sullivan dreamed of seeing her career end in the 1,500m at the Olympic Trials, where she first made a name for herself at the age of 16. Being in the first pair to swim the 1,500m at the Olympics, an event that women have long been barred from doing on this stage, is one of her proudest achievements.

“It was such an honor,” she said. “And I feel like I talk about it all the time, that it meant everything to me, the first 1500m and getting that silver spot, and I still get messages from kids throughout the competition, like, you’re such a role model for the queer community, for the Asian-American community, for women, and I hope that stays with me for a long time I don’t have to have the best time I don’t. I don’t even need people to remember this race. As long as I’m able to impact queer people in the sport and make them feel comfortable, then I can leave as happy as possible.

Sullivan will still be in Austin for the UTLA internship program in Los Angeles. She will apply for an internship at the Richard Linklater Center in Austin. A film buff, she has already launched podcasts on a variety of non-sporting topics, and while she would love to be behind the camera to bring a cinematic touch to events like the U.S. Olympic Trials, filmmaking is where her heart is.

This heart has always been worn on its sleeve, alongside a myriad of causes aimed at increasing inclusion. Her advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community won’t change now that she’s no longer in the public eye.

“I just wanted to make it more inclusive because when I was a kid there was no one,” Sullivan said. “I mean, there were rumors but no one talked about it openly. And so I wear it on my chest with pride, I know it’s 2024 and this is starting to become more common and normalized, but I’m going to preach it until I die because there’s a child somewhere in Iowa, somewhere in Oklahoma, somewhere in Texas who is the only gay kid on their team. So I’m going to represent it.