Aussie swim champ Steph Rice blows up life, gets trolled

Aussie Olympic champion Stephanie Rice has quietly blown up her life with social media trolls reacting harshly to her move.

Aussie swimming champion Stephanie Rice is starting a new life overseas.

The Olympic hero this week revealed to fans she has moved to Dubai and has no current plans to return to Australia.

The 35-year-old has shared her emotional struggles in leaving her own country in a series of Instagram posts documenting her journey.

Those posts have sparked a social media backlash with Instagram users mocking Rice over one video where she appears to be travelling first class to the oil-rich Arab city.

Rice appears visibly emotional in the clip, choking up and shedding a tear.

She captioned the video by writing: “Packed up my whole live (sic) in Australia, bought a one-way ticket to Dubai to start a new chapter and I’m feeling all the emotions surrounding this fresh start … but God is good”.

She also posted: “The past few months have been a rollercoaster of emotions, which have brought about so many wonderful changes which I’m excited to share with you as I start this new journey in Dubai.

Olympian Stephanie Rice has left fans shocked after an emotional reveal on social media announcing she’s moved to Dubai. Photo: Facebook.

Stephanie Rice cries in emotional post

“I’m sure you all have a lot of questions about this move and trust that I will share it with you in due course. At this stage I have no set plans yet in Dubai which is a little scary, I just knew I needed to follow this calling from deep within.

“Moving overseas has been something I have felt called to for so long, it just was never quite the right time…but now the time has come! I want to share this journey with you in hopes it inspires you to honour your own inner-callings and to have faith in the path ahead, even if you don’t yet know what it’s going to look like right now…cause I sure don’t!!

“I guess that’s life though right…just taking one step at a time and trusting that you will always know what to do next when you get there.”

She wrote earlier this week alongside a photo of her arriving at the airport: “A new journey begins.

“My emotions are flying all over the place. I go from excitement to worry to what ifs, but I keep hearing in prayer “one step at a time” so I’m leaning into that.

Olympian Stephanie Rice has left fans shocked after an emotional reveal on social media announcing she’s moved to Dubai. Photo: Facebook.

Olympian Stephanie Rice has left fans shocked after an emotional reveal on social media announcing she’s moved to Dubai. Photo: Facebook.

She shared a photo on Saturday that showed her standing on a high-rise balcony overlooking the super-city’s skyline.

“Found a home in Dubai,” she wrote.

“It was a stressful few days running around trying to find somewhere I felt comfortable, peaceful and safe, but I found it.

“I’m so excited to move in tomorrow and unpack ALLL the things and get set up in a daily routine. Those daily rituals, like a morning coffee, gym, healthy breakfast, reading daily are so important to me. It grounds me in and brings me strength, peace, calmness, energy, focus…which I haven’t felt for a few weeks with the move, packing up life in Australia and uncertainty since landing.

“Now that I have that step checked off I’m excited to see where God leads me next.”

Some of Rice’s followers haven’t been as supportive, based on some of the trolling posts that have flooded the comments section of her posts.

“Was this your third or fourth take of the video,” one person commented.

Another Instagram user wrote: “Must be so hard getting great opportunities and flying first class”.

Rice had never previously spoken publicly about her plans and didn’t mention it once during filming of this year’s SAS Australia season where she was forced to quit as a result of serious injury.

The three-time gold medallist was in tears on the show as she detailed her relationships in a heartbreaking interview.

She said she has struggled mentally since retiring from swimming in 2014.

“I really struggled,” she said.

“I felt really lost after I finished swimming.

“I didn’t feel like I had any purpose or any direction and I didn’t feel like anybody understood.

Stephanie Rice's private life has previously made headlines.

“I felt like I haven’t really trained for anything since I finished competing – like I haven’t really had a goal to work towards, one specific thing.

But it was when the conversation moved to Rice’s personal life and her relationship status that the Olympian broke down.

“It’s harder,” she said as her voice began to break.

“I think it’d be nice to have somebody to go through the harder times.

“I would love to have somebody to help through, like ride the waves.”

Middleton then asked the Aussie swim star what she had to look forward to when she returned home after the show, the answer was heartbreaking.

“At the moment, not a lot,” she replied.

Rice’s love life has previously made headlines around the world.

After splitting from Aussie swimming great Eamonn Sullivan following the Beijing Olympics, rumours spread Rice had been romantically linked with Michael Phelps, former NRL winger David “Wolfman” Williams and Aussie swimming bad boy Nic D’Arcy.