Australia's Olympic and world swimming champion Giaan Rooney has announced her retirement from competition.

Rooney, 23, said she was hanging up her goggles to begin a new career as a television presenter.

"I don't think you can ever replace the feeling of standing up on a block at an Olympics or world championships," she told the Australian Nine Network.

"But for me, I get the same kind of adrenaline feeling of being in front of a camera, that I do when I'm about to race.

"That tells me I'm heading in the right direction and that the next step is the right step."

Rooney crowned her sporting career with a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics when she swam the backstroke leg in the Australian women's medley relay team that broke the world record.

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