She also made the final in two other individual events in London, and was part of two victorious U.S. relay teams.
Franklin picked up six golds at the 2013 Barcelona World Championships, but never improved her personal best times from London.
She struggled to replicate her teenage performances after first experiencing bad shoulder pain in early 2016.
She still made the U.S. team for the Rio Olympics, however, where she picked up another relay gold after swimming in the heats, before having surgery on both shoulders last year.
"This was perhaps the hardest letter I’ve ever had to write ... Today, I announce my retirement from competitive swimming," Franklin wrote on Twitter.
She explained her reasons for retiring in an article for ESPN.com.
"I've been in too much pain, for too long, to go through another surgery with a longer recovery time and no guarantee it would even help," she wrote.
"It took me a long time to say the words, 'I am retiring.' A long, long time. But now I'm ready."
(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina, editing by Ed Osmond)
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