David Leggat: Lauren Boyle retires as one of our greats

Lauren Boyle's retirement today brings an end to one of the finest New Zealand swimming careers.

Numbers talk when assessing the Auckland freestyler's time at the top.

Fourteen medals at the major meets; five world championship medals, a Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow three years ago, a world short course record; all speak of an athlete fit to sit among the best of her time around the globe.

An abiding memory of Boyle, though, comes from the London Olympics in 2012.
Boyle had already made the 400m freestyle final, finishing eighth.

Four days later she lined up in the 800m final and flew through for fourth, in an Oceania record time 8min 22.72s. More significantly she was just 2.4s off bronze.

Coming through the mixed zone afterwards, she was alone. To the embarrassment of the New Zealand Olympic team's media management, they hadn't bothered to have someone alongside her. Translation: they hadn't expected her to shake the medal territory.

She had no staff member to shepherd her back to the changing rooms. All around media were gathered in front of the three medallists.

Boyle found two New Zealand journalists further down the concourse.

The standard 'how did that feel' opening question produce a mumbled few words before Boyle dissolved in tears.

She talked about the struggles to get that far and the emotions took over. Imagine if she had gone just a tick or two faster. How would she have coped before a jostling throng of international journalists?

The Rio Olympics last year were shaping as Boyle's time. American teenager Katie Ledecky remains the undisputed women's champion of the pool, but Boyle would have been a big chance to medal.

A lingering hip injury did for her in Rio and she was far from her best. She's made a smart move to get on with her life. At 29, the time is right.

And as she put it today, her record is "not too bad for a girl from Auckland".

Boyle retires undisputably the country's finest woman swimmers and is fit to sit at the top table with the best New Zealand has produced.