An Olympic shot putter is retiring from athletics and taking up a team sport.
Sophie McKinna, 31, from Bradwell, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, has spent the last six months playing rugby and hopes to join a Premiership team.
The nine-time national champion had previously considered retiring when a serious elbow injury put her 2024 Paris Olympic dreams on hold.
“I have no regrets in my career at all. I have performed to the best of my ability and got the best out of my body I physically could have,” she said.
Aged just four, McKinna already aspired to become an Olympian. She started throwing at 12.
While injuries were “part and parcel” of elite sport, she said years of hyper-extending her elbow at such force had resulted in wear and tear.
She said having surgery on her elbow, then losing some support and backing when she returned to the shot put, had been “the downfall of my career”.
McKinna represented Team GB at the Tokyo Games in 2020, but missed most of the 2023 season following the surgery.
She said funding had been a “barrier” during her athletics career.
“I said to my mum when I was four years old I wanted to be an Olympian and that came true, which is my biggest achievement in athletics.
“I won multiple British titles, records and all the rest of it.
“My experience has been greater than that in terms of being able to travel the world, meet people, see different cultures.
“It’s been a really eye-opening experience which has rounded me into the person I am today.”