Three-time Olympic gold medalist, now 38 and living in Dubai as a pastor’s wife, shared an emotional update on Instagram.
After hunting for a job for well over eight months, with over 130 applications and 5 final-round interviews with no offers, Stephanie Rice is now treating the latest rejection as a sign to go all in on a new business idea she says god gave her six months earlier.
How did she get here?
Rice became a national star at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning gold in the 200m and 400m individual medleys (both in world-record times) and anchoring the Australian 4x200m freestyle relay to another world-record gold.
She later received the Medal of the Order of Australia.
Injuries later limited her 2012 London results; she retired in 2014.
In the years after the pool, she managed her own sponsorships, endorsements and speaking work. More recently, she has described herself as an MBA graduate and former commercial director.
Roughly 18 months before the latest update, she took a director-level role that quickly led to a CEO offer; she resigned before starting. In her own words
“During the negotiation process, I just felt the lord saying to me that my time with them was finished and that he had something else for me. In obedience, I resigned and totally thought that I would land an amazing new role within such a short time.”
Instead, she spent the next eight months applying for more than 130 roles. She called the outcome “frustrating,” saying she had “nothing to show for” the months of applications and interviews.
After another rejection arrived three hours after a prayer walk in which she asked for a clear sign if a full-time job was not the path, she decided the search was over.
She described the feeling as though she was “grieving the end of an eight-month journey,” while also feeling “hopeful and excited” about what might come next.
So now it’s time for a new venture.
Rice is now committing fully to a side business she says was planted six months earlier. She has described it as a “Prayer board pack, an elegantly curated, all-in-one prayer board kit” intended as a dedicated place to write out prayer requests, not a vision or manifestation board. Teases have included floral mood boards and European cottage aesthetics.
She plans to bring it to life through the end of 2026. Rice has spoken openly about finding faith after a period of exhaustion from public scrutiny, business setbacks and personal struggles.
She relocated to Dubai in 2-23, married pastor Mick Lassey in 2025, and started a fresh Instagram presence with her new married name.
“Feels like the perfect time to start a fresh account, in my new name, and with a new commitment to sharing the journey God is taking me on,” wrote Rice, now under the name Stephanie Lassey.
Just goes to show that it’s never too late to switch everything up and strive to achieve something that really matters to you.
