German veteran Oksana Chusovitina, 37, said she was ready to embrace a "normal life" after bowing out of gymnastics at the London Olympics on Sunday.
The Uzbek-born gymnast was bidding to become the oldest winner of an individual women's Olympic medal but she could only finish fifth in the vault final at the North Greenwich Arena.
"I'm happy with my competition," she said. "Now the normal life will start. I want to thank everybody for watching the competition and all the support I got.
"I will find out what normal life is like now. I will be a coach. I have achieved everything I could achieve in gymnastics."
Chusovitina won a team gold medal for the United Team of former Soviet republics at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and claimed silver in the vault for Germany in Beijing in 2008, having moved to Germany in 2002.
She was competing in her sixth Olympic Games, a gymnastics record she shares with Bulgarian rings specialist Jordan Jovtchev.