Australia's Christian Sprenger has announced his retirement from competitive swimming with immediate effect ©Getty Images

Double Olympic silver medallist Christian Sprenger has announced his retirement from competitive swimming with immediate effect after spending almost a decade on the Australian Dolphins Swim Team.

Sprenger, 30, who finished second in the 4x100 metres medley at Beijing 2008 before coming runner-up in the men’s 100m breaststroke at London 2012, cited a shoulder injury he suffered in 2014 as the main reason behind his decision with less than seven months until Rio 2016. 

He made his debut at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, where he won a gold medal in the 4x100m medley - a title which he helped to retain four years later in Delhi.

"The injury I sustained in 2014 really took a bigger toll on me than I thought it would," he said.

"After returning in 2015, after almost four months out of the water, I worked hard to get back what I had lost, but although I may have thought I wanted it, it wasn't enough.

"Towards the end of 2015, my breaststroke just didn't feel how it used to, and I became more and more frustrated.

"The Olympic gold is the only thing missing from my collection, but in this sport, if the mind and body are not perfectly in sync and focused beyond capacity, the performance will not come.

"Ultimately for me, I am not there anymore, and although I may be good enough to make the Olympic team, I can't just be a number on a team, that is not who I am."

Christian Sprenger won silver in the 100m breaststroke at the London 2012 Olympic Games
Christian Sprenger won silver in the 100m breaststroke at the London 2012 Olympic Games ©Getty Images

Sprenger is a former world record holder in both the long course and short course 200m breaststroke, but he grew more focused on the 100m breaststroke as his career progressed.

As well as claiming two Olympic silver medals, Sprenger also won bronze in the 4x100m medley at London 2012.

He has six World Championship medals to his name too, including 100m breaststroke gold from Barcelona in 2013, and half a dozen Commonwealth Games medals.

"I have been fortunate enough to have many defining moments throughout my career where I have achieved things beyond my own belief," Sprenger added.

"I went into the 2012 Olympics ranked number six in the world and took out the silver medal.

"But in 2013 taking the world title in Barcelona, was when I felt like I was unbeatable.

"It wasn’t something people could see, but it was something that I could feel, and that’s all that I needed."

The announcement leaves 20-year old Jake Packard at the top of Australia’s breaststroke group.

Packard currently ranks fifth in the world in the 100m breaststroke this season.