Lauren Steadman has called it a day. "I think these were my last Summer Games, what it took for me mentally to get here... I've had a very similar journey to Adam Peaty. I could have done more. You can always do more as an athlete, but I did what I could with the state of mind I was in," Steadman told BBC Radio Manchester.

She returned with the strength to compete atthe Paralympic Games, having needed a mental break after winning gold in the Para-triathlon at Tokyo 2020. She took a break long enough to regain her strength and enjoy a chosen ending. It is a privilege for an athlete to be able to choose when to retire.

"I love triathlon, I love cycling, but maybe not at the level that I usually perform at, so I think it's a good time to retire when you're really happy and you've enjoyed something," she added in her statements. Sixteen years have passed since her Paralympic debut. It was in Beijing in 2008, but she competed as a para-swimmer. After two editions, she changed sports and took up triathlon. On Monday, after winning bronze, she found peace. Now she is thinking about what she is going to do when she retires. 

Filling the time is often not easy, but Steadman already knows what she wants to do. Her restless and multi-faceted nature has led her to focus on many things, and she will continue her studies into the mental health of athletes at the University of Portsmouth. "She told the BBC, "I've really learnt more about who I am outside of sport in the last three years.

Steadman's sporting life has seen it all. She was favourite to win the sport's first Paralympic gold medal when it debuted at Rio 2016, but only came second. It was a huge blow. The following year, she finished four seconds ahead ofAmerican Grace Norman at the World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It gave her wings and led to her Paralympic title at Tokyo 2020. And then she reinvented herself by adding a new discipline to her routine: dance.

Her off-season training included a fourth discipline alongside swimming, cycling and running: dance. It worked. Now it seems likely that Paris really was her last dance. "I'm getting to the point where I'd really like to find someone, I'd really like to have a family. Simple things that other people have. But when you're an athlete, they're not so easy," she said.