Five-time Olympic swimming champion Missy Franklin is still haunted by her enforced retirement at the age of 23 due to a shoulder injury.
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The former US swimming superstar was forced to quit in 2018, wrecking her own hopes of becoming the most decorated female swimmer of all time.
Franklin told laureus.com: "I never expected that my career was going to be over at 23. I never wanted it to be.
"My ultimate goal was to be the most decorated female Olympic swimmer of all time, and I didn't get that.
"That was something that from the moment I stepped on to the Olympic stage in London, I really, really believed I could do.
"It makes a dream and a goal even harder to lose, when you really, truly believe that you can do it, and you don't."
The 17-year-old Franklin was seen as a potential future history-maker when she swept to four gold medals at the London 2012 Olympics, but injury meant she was unable to repeat the feat in Rio, settling for a single relay gold.
Franklin says she shares the pain of those athletes who have been forced to put their dreams of glory at Tokyo 2020 on hold.
The American believes the new generation of swimming greats will also face significant challenges after the one-year Olympic delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.
She added: "Every athlete from every country in the world is going to have to deal with this.
"There is not one country or one group of athletes that is going to have an advantage. It's going to be a level playing field on day one of the Olympic Games in Tokyo '21.
"Sport is sport and you never know what is going to happen in a year. Look at Katie Ledecky in 2012. No one knew who she was in March, and she won a gold medal in August. Then she went on to become the Katie Ledecky we all know."
Australian Associated Press
