BUDAPEST, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Daniel Gyurta, a popular Hungarian Olympic swimming champion, who won the gold medal at the London Olympic Games in 2012 in 200m breaststrokes, declared his retirement here on Tuesday.

"Making the most difficult decision of my life, I am saying goodbye to competitive swimming," Gyurta announced on his official Facebook page.

"I am not a 'give-up type of guy', but I had to admit that it's time to let it go. I am grateful to the whole nation for standing behind me and for the fact that I won everything a swimmer may dream of: I was undefeated for 6 years in the world," he added.

"I will not show my back to the world of pools, Hungarian swimming can rely on me!" he concluded.

The 28-year-old Gyurta also earned three world titles between 2009 and 2013, always in the 200m breaststrokes category.

In 2013, Gyurta was given a UNESCO International Fair Play Award after he gave a replica of his gold medal in the 200m breaststroke to the family of Alexander Dale Oen, the Norwegian rival swimmer who had died earlier in 2012 from heart disease.