World champion swimmer Filippo Magnini of Italy ended a three-year retirement at age 38, according to his social media.
“I decided to get back in the water as a winner, because inside I’ve already won it all,” was posted on his Instagram.
Magnini, a four-time Olympian, won the 100m freestyle at the world championships in 2005 and 2007. He earned an Olympic bronze medal in the 4x200m free relay in 2004 and had a best individual finish of fifth in the 100m free at the Athens Games.
Magnini announced his retirement in December 2017.
Since then, he was handed a four-year ban in a doping case in 2018 — though Magnini never tested positive — that was overturned on appeal in February. He also made headlines in 2019 for saving a struggling swimmer in the sea off Sardinia.
Magnini could look to help Italy in the freestyle relays at the Tokyo Olympics. Italian men took fourth in the 4x100m and 4x200m at the 2019 World Championships.
American Dara Torres is the only swimmer older than Magnini to earn an Olympic medal, taking three silvers at age 41 at the 2008 Beijing Games. In 2016, Magnini became the oldest Italian male swimmer in Olympic history.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!