Rabey hopes to end Island Games career on a high
Orla Rabey has won 22 medals over three Island Games, including eight golds
- Published
Swimmer Orla Rabey says it is time to retire from the sport after this month's Island Games.
The 23-year-old was Guernsey's most decorated athlete two years ago when she won six gold medals as well as a silver and two bronzes.
In total the butterfly specialist has won 22 medals over three games stretching back to 2017.
She also swam for Guernsey at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
"I'm around 23 and usually swimmers kind of tend to stop at 23-ish," she told BBC Radio Guernsey.
"I also want to do some more things in my life - swimming is obviously a very time-committed sport, so I would like to maybe expand my horizons and try some other sports.
"There's some really talented younger swimmers coming up and I'd love to give them the opportunity to be able to go and compete at the Island Games.
"If I'm still going at the age of 26 it just hinders their chance and I would love to see them because they are really talented and I really think they deserve to go as well."
Orla Rabey hopes she can add to her haul of 14 relay medals
Rabey has been living in Edinburgh for the past few months which has hampered her training.
She does not think she will repeat her feat of 2023, when she won gold in all three individual butterfly events.
She also won three relay golds two years ago and says she is excited to compete in the team events.
"I'm looking to go out, have some fun, hopefully medal individually, but I think my main focus is the girls' relays," she said.
"I think we can absolutely kill it in those, we came away with three golds last time and one bronze and I have a feeling we could get them all this year, hopefully four golds, we have a really, really strong girls team this year."
She added: "The relays are going to have to be very tight, very focused because we did heavily dominate last year.
"But I think this year will be a lot more interesting, a lot more exciting finals especially and I'm really looking forward to it."