Guy Dresser | Oronne Communications - Tim Brabants, Britain’s most successful Olympic canoeist, has announced his retirement from the sport. Tim has represented Great Britain at four Olympic Games and became the country’s first Olympic gold medalist in Beijing, winning the K1 1,000m with a barnstorming performance that saw him take the lead off the start and dominate the entire race.

In all, Tim won three Olympic medals – with a bronze in the K1 1,000 at Sydney 2000 and  a bronze in the K1 500m at Beijing. He is also a multiple world and European champion.

He began his career at Elmbridge Canoe Club, raced for Nottingham Kayak Club while at university and has in recent years competed for Royal Canoe Club.

This morning he released the following statement on his website:

“This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make, but reluctantly I realise I have reached the point where I need to retire from the sport."

“It has become more obvious to me over the last few months that as much as I love the sport and would love to be Olympic and World Champion again, I’ve reached the point where I’m unlikely to improve or achieve the same results that I once achieved.”

Tim competed in this weekend’s GB selection events at Nottingham and reached the selection criteria, making him eligible to compete internationally for Great Britain in 2013.  He finished second in the K1 1,000m, losing to fellow Royal CC member Jon Boyton.

He said, however, that his performance at the weekend was not a factor in his decision today.

Rather, he said that continuing to compete this season, with the likelihood he would not regain his best form, would be unfair on both his family and fellow athletes.

“As a competitive athlete with a competitive brain I cannot make this decision easily and I know lots of athletes have had to go through this. It is a difficult decision and it is not based on this weekend, because I have done well enough to be selected to race internationally from my results this weekend.

But it wouldn’t be right to just keep competing for the sake of competing and, when you’re not getting your best results, it wouldn’t be fair on my family or on the other athletes in the sport that are trying to come through.

Tim now plans to resume his medical career with the likelihood of specialising in emergency medicine.  He is yet to decide on whether to return to the UK, having based himself in Cape Town over the winter with his South African-born wife and children.

“I would like to stay involved in the sport in some way and my level of involvement will become more apparent over the next six months to a year,” he added.

Eric Farrell, Tim’s coach for the past 20 years, paid tribute this morning: “Tim is by far the most successful canoeist we have ever had in Britain. I am highly fortunate to have been involved with an athlete of [his] calibre right through his career and it has been great to make the whole journey with him.  He has been an absolute pleasure to work with.”