Joanne Malar one of the stars of Canadian Swimming and a memeber of the National Team for over 10 years has announced her retirement. She announced her retirement from the sport, from the same place it began, the Jimmy Thompson Pool in Hamilton. She will now become a coach with the Hamilton-Wentworth Aquatic Club, the same club where she began swimming at age 3.

Malar who is now 25 first made the National Team in 1990 as a 14 year old and has been a fixture there ever since.

The 3 time Olympian, retires with 29 National Championship titles, and 71 international medals to her credit.

While she never managed to add an Olympic medal to her trophy case, she did manage to pick up World Championship titles and medals, with a bronze medal at the 1997 World Short Course Championships in Goteborg, Sweden and 2 gold medals at the 1995 World Short Course Championships in Rio de Janiero.

Her most recent career highlights include: 2 golds and a bronze medal at the 1999 Pan Pacific Championships in Sydeny, 3 golds and a bronze medal at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg and a gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals from the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

She also holds several Canadian records and is the current Commonwealth record holder in the 400 IM.

She has also received numerous awards during her career including being named the SNC's female swimmer of the year in 1995 and 1999, being named several times as the ontario swimmer of the year and once as the ontario athlete of the year.

Until September Joanne will be coaching the age group swimmers at her old club in Hamilton and finishing up her degree at McMaster in Kinesiology and with minor in business. In fact her new career begins this weekend at a meet in Oakville where she is going to be on deck as a coach.

In March she will take some time off to get married to fiance Mike Morreale. Mike is a football player with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

When asked about her thoughts on her career and the retirement she had this to say, "I'm really happy with my career and now is the right time to retire. I'm ready to move on to the next chapter in my life. I'm looking at different opportunities, I want to find something that I m passionate about."

Congratulations & Good Luck Joanne!