The American athlete, who also has three silver Games medals and four World Championship golds, took a break following London 2012 - where she claimed gold in the 200 metres breaststroke and 4x100m medley and silver in the 100m breaststroke - but had initially left open the possibility of competing again at Rio 2016.

However, she has now said she will retire and instead focus her attention on her newly launched lifestyle company and blog.

"I know I've conquered my goals in the pool, and now it's time to conquer something else," Soni said.

Rebecca Soni became the first woman to break the 2 minutes, 20 seconds barrier in the 200m breaststroke ©Getty Images


As well as being the only woman to successfully defend an Olympic breaststroke title, she is perhaps best known for becoming the first woman to break the 2min 20sec barrier in the 200m breaststroke, when she set the world record at 2:19.59 in London,a mark broken last year by Denmark's Rikke Pedersen.

"Achieving my dream of going below 2 minutes and 20 seconds in the 200m breaststroke really put the storybook ending on my career," Soni said.

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