Having arrived via the birthday party Gymbus that inspired her as a six-year-old, Lauren Mitchell leaves almost two decades later as Australia's most decorated gymnast. She announced her retirement on Wednesday, body and mind both spent.
The timing with which the 2010 Rotterdam world floor champion was blessed with in a competitive sense was denied her in the latter chapters of a story that did not end at the Rio Olympics, as she had wished, but with a typically determined – yet ultimately brief – mid-year comeback from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
Had Australia qualified a full women's team for a seventh consecutive Games, Mitchell would almost certainly have departed as a three-time Olympian in a sport in which such longevity is not the norm. Instead, she won one last national championship on beam at the Olympic trials, and performed a final routine in Portugal in July. This time was right. "It was a combination of everything, really," Mitchell said. "I've given everything to the sport and I've left it with no regrets and that was the most important thing.
"I'm just so happy and proud of everything I've achieved and I don't think I have anything else left to achieve. And mentally I'm tired, and because I've pushed myself I don't know if I can keep pushing myself, and physically I'm sore, as well."
She is honoured to be regarded as Australia's greatest gymnast: the only female gold medallist at world championship level, as well as a dual silver medallist on beam and floor in 2009 in London, where she also finished fourth in the all-around.
Proud, too, of her determination and resilience, while lauded by coaches and peers for her dedication, attitude and example. A 14-time World Cup medallist and Commonwealth Games record-breaker, her top-five finish at the 2012 London Olympics – just 0.67 off a bronze medal on floor – was the highest individual place an Australian artistic gymnast has achieved.
Yet national coach Peggy Liddick will miss not just Mitchell's athletic abilities but the personal qualities of "an exemplary human being".
She was "the right gymnast at the right time and was healthy", says Liddick, but then, when she wasn't, committed herself just as diligently to return when others would have mothballed their sparkly leotards.
"Not a lot of people have that character, so that's why she's a champion," Liddick added. "She's got good athletic talent. She's not the most talented athlete I've ever worked with, but what she does have is that character and work ethic that combined with her talent made her the best Australian gymnast so far."
Mitchell, 25, said she would have loved to have finished in Rio. "That would have been a big high for me, but when I did my ACL last year I came back in 10 months from a major knee reconstruction. It was my goal to do Olympic trials, and I managed to put out an international-standard routine at trials and I was so happy and proud of that in itself that Rio just would have been a bonus."
