JOIN USInto its 10th edition this year, the TCS World 10K announced Australian swimming great Stephanie Rice as its event ambassador on Wednesday.
The Australian is expected to be here next week and will involve herself with the participants in the Open 10K and the other events on May 21, the race day.
The 2017 edition of the World 10K will witness the participation of over 23,000 runners across the six race categories. The officials confirmed that close to 13,000 entries have been received for the Open 10K alone, a 12 per cent increase from the previous edition.
One of Australia’s ‘golden girls’, Rice was the pick of the Australian swimmers at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with three gold medals in world record times.
Rice first caught the attention of the swimming world in 2006, when the then 17-year-old won gold in the 200M and 400M individual medley at the Commonwealth Games. She continued her fine show in the coming years and at the Bejing Summer Games she took her game a notch higher to win gold in the 200M and 400M individual medley and later led her team to gold in the 4x200M freestyle relay, all in world record times.
Though the 28-year-old retired from competitive swimming in 2014, Rice has been actively involved in the public sphere as a motivational speaker and a mentor at various forums.
“It’s a moment of great joy for us that Stephanie Rice has agreed to come down for the race this year. We are confident Stephanie will inspire the runners with her experience of her prolific career,” said Dilip Jayaram, CEO Procam International, the event organisers.