Olympic Marta Pen confirms career final in athletics

A portuguese Olympic athlete Marta Pen confirmed today the end of her career, after a year without competing, at the end of 20 years linked to athletics, having also experienced oncological problems.

At the age of 33, in a message published on social networks, Marta Pen said that in 2025, she said that “she always wanted athletics to be a passion, not a prison, and sometimes it was challenging to separate the two” and that “honoring everything that good athletics” gave her also meant having “the freedom to leave him and discover who could be without a next test in the calendar”.

“In April 2025, after one of the best covered track times of my career, I told my coach that summer would be my last season as a professional athlete. My senior season. I was still fine physically, but we all know when we're about to complete a cycle. For me, it was clear that this cycle with athletics was coming to an end”, he wrote.

Marta Pen, a multiple-time national champion, competed in the 1,500 metres at the Rio2016 and Tokyo2020 Olympics, and was subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer.

“ Over the summer, with the accumulation of treatments, my body changed. I'm especially grateful that I could choose before that. For having had time to say goodbye to the high competition while I was still living it ", said.