The Russian star retires at the age of 33 as the most decorated Olympic artistic swimmer and the only woman to finish her Olympic career undefeated when entering seven or more events.

She claimed four golds in the team event and three in the duet, including two with Nataliya Ishchenko and one with Svetlana Kolesnichenko.

Her first Olympic title came at Beijing 2008 where she was part of the Russian team to strike gold.

She then won the duet and team titles at both London 2012 and Rio 2016.

After giving birth to her daughter Alexandra in 2017, Romashina took almost two years off before coming back to defend her duet and team crowns at Tokyo 2020.

Romashina has also claimed 21 world titles, 13 European crowns and two Summer Universiade golds.

The artistic swimming legend took to social media to confirm her retirement.

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A post shared by Svetlana Romashina (@svetlanaromashina)

"The day I officially announced the end of my career in sports," Romashina wrote on Instagram.

"This is a balanced, thoughtful and final decision.

"I believe that I have achieved all my goals, accomplished everything I could... and without your support, I would hardly have done it, for which I thank you very much.

"Of course, I would like to express my huge gratitude to my coaches, my family and friends... thank you all so much for being with me all these years.

"And now it's time to change the type of activity and work in a different quality for the benefit of your favourite sport."

Tatiana Pokrovskaya, head coach of Russia’s artistic swimming team, paid tribute to Romashina who is expected to turn to coaching.

"She deserves great respect," Pokrovskaya told Russian state-owned channel Match TV.

"I think she will also succeed in her new field.

"It is of course a pity that Svetlana is ending her career but I think that new victories await her."