World Junior Champion Maxime Rooney Announces Retirement
Maxime Rooney, an NCAA star and a World Junior Championships gold medalist, announced his retirement Saturday.
Rooney made the announcement via social medial.
Rooney, 24, started his college career at the University of Florida for three seasons before transferring to the University of Texas. He was a nine-time All-American and seven-time SEC Champion with the Gators. He didn’t get a final NCAAs in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The native of Livermore, Calif., set a world junior record in 2015 in the men’s 200 freestyle at 1:47.10 in winning his first national title. (He also won the 100 fly title in 2019). At the 2015 World Junior Championships in Singapore, Rooney won the 200 free and was part of the winning 800 free relay to go with two relay silvers and the 100 free silver. He also won two gold medals at the World University Games in 2017 plus silver in the 800 free relay.
Rooney never quite made that final jump to a major senior international delegation for the U.S. He finished 19th in the Olympic Trials in the 200 free in 2021 to go with 11th in the 100 free and 12th in the 100 fly. He was 11th in the 100 free and ninth in the 200 free at Trials in 2016.
At the recently completed U.S. International Team Trials in Greensboro, Rooney was ninth in prelims of the 100 free. He landed third in the 50 fly (with only one swimmer getting to Worlds) and eighth in the 100 fly. He did not swim the 200 free.
Rooney was part of the International Swimming League for the last two seasons with the L.A. Condors. A three-time national teamer, he retires with the fourth-fastest time in U.S. history in the 100 fly.