OMAHA, July 3: Dara Torres announced her retirement from swimming after she came up agonisingly short in her bid to make the United States team for the London Olympics on the last day of the trials on Monday.

The 45-year-old mother, who defied the odds for years by beating women much younger than her, needed to finish in the top two of the women's 50 metres freestyle to qualify for her sixth Olympics but could only manage fourth place.

“This is really over, that's it,” she told reporters. “I'm going to enjoy some time with my daughter and cheer on the US team from afar.”

Torres won 12 Olympic medals, including four golds, during her career, which began in Los Angeles way back in 1984 when she was still a teenager.

She won relay golds in Los Angeles, Barcelona (1992) and Sydney (2000) then came out of retirement to make the US team for Beijing aged 41 and won three silver medals.—Reuters