Before the 2014 World Rowing Championships, Twigg announced that she would take the southern hemisphere 2014/15 rowing season off for study in Europe, with an aim to get back into rowing in time for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The study timetable meant that she would miss the 2015 World Rowing Championships, which doubled as an Olympic qualifying event. She had to rely on the 2016 European &amp; Final Qualification Regatta at the Rotsee in May 2016; she won all three races in this sudden death competition and gained her Olympic qualification. At the 2016 World Rowing Cup III in Poznań, she was beaten by her then-arch rival Kim Brennan from Australia and had to settle for second place. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she very narrowly missed out on a medal, just beaten by the Chinese rower Duan Jingli for bronze. Deeply disappointed on having again missed out on an Olympic medal, she announced her retirement from rowing not long after the medal ceremony, calling coming fourth at the Olympics for a second time "almost my worst nightmare".