GUEST BLOG: Olympic bronze medallist Cassie Patten

By Cassie Patten, Olympic 10km open water bronze medallist

I SHOULD start off by saying that choosing to retire has been the toughest decision of my life so far - and I do it with a very heavy heart.

CALLING IT QUITS: Cassie Patten has been forced to retire after a nine-month long battle with a shoulder injury

If I didn't love swimming it would be so much easier but I still very much love the sport and enjoy the sport and that has made it very hard.

But it isn't a new thing or something that has just sprung up, my shoulder hasn't been good for nine months and this has been a long time coming.

I didn't really talk about it much before the World Championships in China and after I didn't qualify for the Olympics in the 10km open water event, an event I won bronze in at the Beijing Games in 2008, a lot of people just said call it quits then.

But I waited, I am still very much in love with swimming, and I am proud of myself for being mentally tough and pushing through over those nine months when others would have quit.

At the beginning of this year I was swimming personal bests and really excited but then I got the injury and pretty much from the beginning of April it has been really tough.

Probably in a year's time I will look back at my two world silver medals and Olympic bronze and be pleased but you want more and you want to do more, you want to do this and you want to do that.

I am a very determined swimmer and I do work hard and if I didn't try hard I don't think I would be as upset - it isn't my fault my body is letting me down.

SEALED WITH A KISS: Cassie Patten, right, and Keri-Anne Payne at the Beijing Olympics (Getty Images)

I've moved back home to Cornwall and at the moment it feels like I am just on holiday, probably in a month or two it will really hit me and I will struggle but I will stay positive and keeping telling myself there is nothing more that I could have done.

There will be some days when I wake up and think why I am not swimming but the shoulder hasn't got any better and I have to be strict on myself and not get down.

I am going to go back to my old school, Plymouth College, and apply for university through them and I might go travelling, I guess just be a bit normal.

Being a competitive athlete requires you to be very dedicated, some athletes, and I'm not going to name names, do go out over the weekends but I never did that.

I was a full-time competitive athlete and I still haven't gone out yet - maybe in a couple more months I will be OK to go out.

I would quite like to be a teacher and I will talk with the careers lady at Plymouth College but I haven't thought about what I am going to do.

I left when I was 18 and now I'm back and nearly 25, a lot of things have changed and when they talk about mature students it makes me feel old.

Kellogg's has been supporting British Swimming for more than 15 years on a ‘grassroots to gold medals' programme of swimming. Visit www.kelloggs.co.uk/swimming for more information.

Cassie Patten was speaking to Sportsbeat's Ryan Bangs

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