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Klüft to retire following 2012 London Olympics

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
Klüft to retire following 2012 London Olympics

Sweden's three-time world heptathlon champion Carolina Klüft, who now competes in the long jump, will retire after the London Olympics in 2012.

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"Then'll be time for me to do something else. I've been competing in athletics for a long time even if I'm not so old. There are so many other things I want to do," Klüft told Radiosporten radio.

"Some lose motivation from the moment when they start to think that it's time to retire. But I've always known that I also wanted to do something else in my life."

The 28-year-old, also Olympic heptathlon champion at the 2004 Athens Games, didn't specify what avenues she might follow, but did rule out becoming a coach.

"I think I'm starting to become saturated with sport and I want to do something else completely different. I think I'll still be able to motivate people, but maybe in other fields and not in sport.

"I just don't find training fun at all. Thinking about what you must do to be as good as possible doesn't interest me."

Klüft triumphed in the heptathlon at the World Championships in 2003, 2005 and 2007 and tasted Olympic success in 2004 but now focuses on the long jump.

She missed the 2009 World Championships in Berlin through injury, and will have this year's August 27-September 4 worlds in Daegu, South Korea, on her radar before the London Olympics.

According to Radiosporten, Klüft will also try to snag a place in the Swedish women's 4x100m relay team.

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