What happened to Stephanie Rice, Australia's triple gold swimming sensation?

Thanks to her achievements at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Stephanie was once one of Australia’s biggest names. Picking up three gold medals at those games, Rice was not just a sensation in the world of competitive swimming, but became a celebrity in her own right – followed by tabloids around the world.

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It wasn't all highs, though, as controversy, injuries and diminishing form saw her drop out of favour. Let’s take a look back at Rice’s journey to the top and what she’s up to now.

Stephanie Rice was born in Brisbane, Australia in June 1988. Rice reportedly struggled to fit in with children her age growing up and said in 2017 she found swimming gave her confidence and the sport soon became an outlet for her, according to the Daily Mail.

Spurred on by a sports teacher who told her she didn’t have what it took to be a professional athlete, Rice threw herself deep into swimming training and competition, which took up most of her high school life.

Rice became an overnight sensation in her home country in 2006 at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Aged 17, Rice took out gold medals in both the 200m and 400m individual medlies.

She continued to develop as a swimmer over the coming year, improving her personal best times at events such as the Melbourne World Championships and trials for the Olympics.

At the 2008 Australian Olympic trials, Rice broke the world record in the 400-metre individual medley with a time of 4 minutes 31.46 seconds – 1.43 seconds under American Katie Hoff's time of 4:32.89.

While Hoff would reclaim her record at the US Olympic trials in June 2008, Rice would also pick up a new one, this time a 200-metre individual medley world record with a time of 2 minutes 8.92 seconds – almost a full second off the previous record.

Rice would head into the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics in top form, and it would show almost immediately. She clinched her maiden Olympic medal – Australia’s first of the Games – in the fiercely contested 400-meter individual medley, where she clocked an astonishing time of 4 minutes and 29.45 seconds. 

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In an impressive feat, she reclaimed the world record from Hoff, surpassing the previous mark by 1.67 seconds. This extraordinary achievement made her the first woman in history to break the 4:30 barrier in this event.

She would go on to win three medals in total at this edition of the Games. Her second gold medal was in the 200-meter individual medley, where she set a new world record with an astonishing time of 2 minutes and 8.45 seconds. Rice's victory came after a thrilling neck-and-neck race with Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry in the final 50 meters, with Rice ultimately surpassing the previous world record.

She added the third gold medal to her collection as a vital part of the 4x200-meter freestyle relay team. Her triple medal tally had made her an icon in her place of birth, and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia the following year in 2009.

She was riding high on her fame in the wake of her achievements and found herself in demand as the face of numerous brands, including luxury car manufacturer Jaguar and underwear brand Davenport. 

That year saw a dip in her performance, though. Her main competition that year was at the 2009 World Championships, where she picked up a silver in the 200m individual medley and a bronze in the 400m individual medley.

Her reputation also took a bit of a dip in 2010 after she posted a scandalous tweet that included a homophobic slur, as she celebrated the Australian Wallabies' win over the South African Springboks. Rice later apologised for the offensive tweet at a press conference, saying her words were "careless and thoughtless".  She subsequently lost her key sponsorship deals following the controversy.

Rice had started to suffer from a shoulder injury by this point, and over the coming years would undergo three surgeries to try and improve her mobility. This ultimately hampered her performance heading into the 2012 London Olympics. Here she would only claim fourth in 200m individual medley and a joint sixth in 400 m medley.

It would mark the end of Rice’s career in the sport, and she would announce her retirement in 2014 with a video message on her website. "Coming off the Games, I really didn't want to make a rash decision on my career and if I was going to keep swimming or not because I was still too emotional about the whole preparation that I'd just been through," Rice said.

“I definitely feel like I'm losing a part of myself but I'm really excited about what's to come," Rice said about her decision to officially retire.

Despite retiring, she was never too far from the tabloids around this time, thanks to speculation about her relationships with rugby star Quade Cooper, superstar swimmer Michael Phelps, actor Ryan Gosling and basketballer Kobe Bryant, the latter of which Rice denies. She would also try her hand at television work, winning ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ in 2013.

She has also transitioned from competing into coaching, working as a swimming coach for athletes in the United States. In 2019, she set up her own swimming academy in India with hopes of producing medal-winning athletes for the country in the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games.

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Now 35, Rice headed back to television in Australia in October 2023 to compete in SAS Australia, where famous athletes and personalities compete against each other in a military training program.