Camden’s Anna Goodale, a member of the gold-medal winning U.S, women’s eight crew in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, has retired from competitive rowing.

Goodale said today that after the U.S. won the world championships last November in New Zealand, she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue any longer and soon after notified team officials that she was retiring. She was in line to be a member of the women’s eight team in the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

“I decided that I had a great run and that I am ready for whatever is next in my life,” said Goodale. “It got to the point where I started dreaming so much about my future, I wasn’t 100 percent into rowing.

“I know enough about the sport and how much it takes to do it. It would have been extraordinarily difficult to continue with the team if I was not in it 100 percent.”

Goodale, 28, is moving to Cuenca, Ecuador, to begin a new career there.