CHINA’S star swimmer Ning Zetao, who made history to win the men’s 100m freestyle at the 2015 Kazan Swimming World Championships, announced retirement on his Sina Weibo account yesterday.

Ning celebrated his 26th birthday yesterday on Weibo, a twitter-like microblog, saying “Goodbye to the swimming pool and start my new life. The way to success is never easy, push yourself and do not settle.”

Ning jumped to fame at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, where he won four freestyle gold medals and made a perfect international debut.

And then the Henan Province native made a breakthrough victory at the 2015 Kazan World Championships.

His 100m free gold medal marked a milestone achievement in Chinese swimming history, as prior to Ning’s victory, no Asian swimmer had ever advanced to the final in this event at the World Championships.

After Kazan, Ning became famous with his fans going crazy for his good results and handsome physique.

By now he has 7.9 million fans in Sina Weibo. However, his competitiveness had been questioned as it seemed two many commercial activities prevented him from concentrating on training and competition.

He failed to make the 100m final at the 2016 Rio Games and he was later expelled from the national squad for violating relevant commercial promotion rules.

Ning did not qualify for the 2017 World Championships or the 2018 Asian Game in Indonesia.(Xinhua)