Three-time Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Libby Trickett is to come out of retirement and will target a spot on the Australian 2012 Games team for London.
Trickett, 25, said she started to realise in recent months she still had the fire in her belly to compete.
''Throughout the course of this year there were little things that made me miss it [swimming],'' she said.
''Just the smell of the pool during race time, just things that twinged my memories.
''I think it really solidified it at Pan Pacs [event in California last month] seeing the guys race ... I guess I was just ready to test myself again and really I just want to see how far I can take my swimming and see how fast I can get.''
Trickett was a mainstay of the Australian swimming team after making her debut at the 2003 world championships where she captured bronze in the 50m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay.
She won her first Games gold at the Athens Olympics in 2004 in the 4x100m relay and reached her peak by the 2007 world championships where she claimed five gold medals.
Trickett went on to win relay and individual gold in Beijing at the 2008 Games but her performances tapered off by the 2009 world championships where she failed to top the podium.
In September that year she announced she was taking a break from the sport before announcing her retirement in December.
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