As if Orla Rabey was actually going to retire at the Orkney 2025 Island Games.
Although the record-smashing Barracuda had marked her intention to hang up the swim cap and goggles there, she has held on another year to go out representing Guernsey at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The timing is right for the 24-year-old. Ahead of moving to London for work at the end of the month, she spoke through her difficult decision to step down from a sport that she still loves.
‘It gets to the point where you love the sport and you don’t want to push it too hard where you fall out of love with the sport,’ she said.
‘With the last Island Games there were so many incredibly talented young swimmers coming up, and if I’m still going, they will never have the opportunities that I’ve had to have an amazing swimming career.
‘If I free my spots up for the four races I normally do, that potentially means four new people coming up and succeeding in the next Games, which is really exciting for them.
‘I love swimming and it’s been my life since I’ve been eight years old. I’m looking forward to doing some other stuff afterwards.’
Perhaps no single feat will define Rabey’s career more than being the golden girl of Guernsey 2023.
Competing in her home pool of Beau Sejour, she brought home a six glorious golds – including a clean sweep of the individual butterfly swims – and nine total medals.
She has continued winning and setting records domestically in the aftermath of a successful outing in Orkney, but has also dipped her toes in some new challenges over the last few years.
This includes putting in the miles on the road and completing multiple half marathons.
She made a social, fundraising trip to run the 2024 Copenhagen Half, which so happened to include the Sabastian Sawe who was to become the first human to break 2hrs officially in the marathon, and is now eyeing her own 26.2-mile debut in Dublin.
But probably her greatest sporting feats outside of swimming have come with her venture into Hyrox fitness racing.
At the Hyrox London ExCel in December 2025, she competed in the pro category and clocked a very respectable 1hr 25min. 18sec. But it did not come easily.
‘I do really enjoy Hyrox,’ she added.
‘It kills you, and I don’t think I’ve ever done anything as hard in my life as that pro Hyrox, and trying to train and qualify for the Commonwealth Games at the same time as doing that was quite a challenge.
‘Thankfully, the strength training goes side by side, so it wasn’t too bad.’
In Glasgow, the multi-talented competitor will be contesting the 50m and 100m butterfly, together with freestyle over the latter distance. These are all events in which she holds Guernsey records.
Rabey’s training now is quite different to her Commonwealths bow at Birmingham 2022.
She has in fact eased off the swimming, which she was doing six or seven times a week back then.
She is still swimming at least four or five times a week, but complimented with three gym sessions.
Rabey is still aiming to go faster than ever with this new balance.
‘I’d be delighted with a PB, which means an Island record.
‘It’s been a whirlwind kind of year where I wasn’t thinking of going and I ended up staying in Guernsey, so I was like, “You know what, I’m going to do it”.
‘When you get to 24, 25, you never know where your plans are going to take you, so I didn’t want to commit to anything.
‘But I’m still here, so I’m going.’
Although Rabey will miss out on attending a truly international Commonwealths, her experience from Birmingham showed what a spectacle a ‘home Games’ can be.
‘I would like to say it’s an overwhelming but incredible experience.
‘Everyone’s saying you wish you could go away somewhere exotic like Australia, where it was meant to be, but when we went to Birmingham the home crowd was like nothing else – unbelievable.
‘I can’t wait to see it all unfold, and I imagine the Scots will bring a full force of energy.
‘It’s an incredible thing to be a part of. To be such a small island and to see these amazing, big teams and you get to compete alongside like these Olympians everyday, it is really exciting.’
Putting any inter-island rivalry aside, she has expressed her hope that Jersey’s brilliant Filip Nowacki can bring back a medal.
‘If I get to watch Jersey win their first Commonwealth Games medal in the pool, that would be incredible, as much as people say they don’t like Jersey.’
She will also have plenty of company in the Guernsey swim team, which contains an unprecedented 12 members.
Making up the bulk of a 20-strong Team Guernsey, Sara Parfit’s swim squad includes seven first-timers, and its sheer size also offers plenty of options when it comes to the relays.
‘It’s exciting the fact we could bring such a big team to the Commonwealth Games. Some of the young swimmers didn’t even go to the last Island Games, so or them to be selected for the Commonwealths is a very exciting, but probably daunting, thing for them.’
This week, she and a few pool allies will be on a training camp balancing sun and swimming in Mallorca.
The move to London will present an obstacle for the final weeks of preparation, but she aims to ‘get through it’ by training at Clapham and taking remote instruction from Parfit.
And, even if she does swim her final competitive strokes at Glasgow’s Tollcross International, she hopes that the pool will remain a regular fixture of her life for many years to come – albeit on a more casual basis.
‘I think I’ll always still love swimming.’
