Sprint star Rohan Browning suddenly retires weeks after gold medal
Aussie Olympic sprinter Rohan Browning has suddenly retired at the age of 28.
Australian Athletics announced the news on Wednesday morning.
Rohan Browning running in Glasgow. Getty Images
It comes just weeks after Browning won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. He was part of the 4x100m men’s relay team that triumphed.
He retires as the fourth fastest Australian man ever over 100m, with a personal best time of 10.01 seconds - falling achingly short of the coveted 10-second barrier that has since been beaten by countryman Lachlan Kennedy.
He represented the country at Olympic Games in Tokyo and Paris, and was a four-time Australian champion over 100m.
“I really wanted to go out on a high note and after winning the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in the relay, it was only going to go downhill from there,” Browning said.
“The athlete in me still thinks that I could get back, run personal bests and compete at the highest level, but no athlete is ever going to be truly satisfied.
“The thing that I’m actually proudest of is that I made every team from my debut in 2017 to my retirement in 2026.”
While his flowing mullet once attracted a cult following, his ability on the track set the benchmark for men’s running in Australia until recent years when the likes of Gout Gout and Kennedy went past him.
Browning ran 10.01 seconds for the first time when he won his heat at the Tokyo 2021 Games. It was the run that announced him to the wider Australian community.
“That was a moment that changed my life,” Browning said.
“It gave me a really healthy dose of self-belief because it had been a quiet period for Australian men’s sprinting. There weren’t many role models on the scene and I feel like I had to forge that path myself.”
Browning clocked 10.01 a second time he shocked Kennedy to win his fourth Australian 100m title in 2025.
