Australian World Record holder Ariarne Titmus may not be competing at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup but that doesn’t mean the 23-year-old is sitting idle on the sidelines.
Titmus recently spoke to The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) about her mindset and training plan heading into the 2024 Olympic Games.
Regarding Paris, Titmus said this week, “It’s about trying to get the best out of myself and see what else I can achieve within myself personally… not just performing in the pool but trying to really pave the way for swimmers and young girls around Australia.”
She put up an inspirational performance at this year’s World Championships where the Dean Boxall-trained star ripped a new World Record in the women’s 400m freestyle. Titmus’ time of 3:55.38 reclaimed the record from Canadian teen phenom Summer McIntosh who had established a new mark of 3:56.08 just months earlier.
Of her race, Titmus told The AOC, “I think in the 400m [at the World Championships] I probably performed beyond what I thought I could. I don’t think I realised how much pent up, nervous energy I had for that race and I feel like I really used it to my advantage and just went out there and raced quite fearless.
“I thought the only way to win that race was to go out there and leave nothing in the tank, take it from the start, not try and hold back and crawl my way back into the race. I feel like that got the best out of me on the day.”
Since that time, Titmus encountered a health scare where the Tasmanian had benign tumors removed from her ovaries. The tumors were discovered when the athlete sought scans for an ongoing hip injury and she revealed her ordeal on social media.
Extrapolating on what it means to be in the spotlight both in the pool and out, Titmus commented, “I really feel like I have a responsibility to be a role model, not just as an athlete but as a person and I feel like it’s really important to me that the public get to know who I am as a person beyond being an athlete… that’s more so what my goals are now, rather than thinking Olympic gold is everything. For Tokyo, swimming was everything.”
Looking ahead to Paris, Titmus said, “The Olympics is pretty much the next big comp, that’s what we’re gearing up for now. We have Olympic trials before then and a few more domestic competitions, but really it’s go time… banking away as much work as possible and fine tuning a few areas. There’s a lot of work to be done.
“Going into the Olympics now in the 400m especially, I have a lot of confidence. I think going to the Olympics next year to try and defend both my titles is going to be a tough gig but it’s definitely my main goal.”
Regarding being pitted against American Katie Ledecky, who Titmus beat in the 400m in 2019 to break through as a bonafide star, Titmus commented, “For Katie [Ledecky] and I, I’ve been racing her since I was 16 years old. We get along personally, great, there’s no rivalry there whatsoever beyond racing. I really value that.”
“But certainly, in the pool… the race is on.
“With Summer [McIntosh], I haven’t raced her too much and she’s still quite young and getting into racing in the international scene and she’s a bit more different [to Ledecky].”
If each racer brings their best to the table the 400 can easily be race of the meet. Race of the decade even…?
She’s a strong performer when the pressure is on.
Summer MacIntosh will give her a better race next time.
So we’ll have another great race in the 400 in Paris. Ledecky shouldn’t hang back, that really didn’t help her swim any faster.
There is no doubt MacIntosh is an absolute phenoms. At 17 years old she already has 4 golds, a silver & 3 bronze medals in the world championships & swam at the Tokyo Olympics at 14 years old.
Her biggest problem is she has many events, 200, 400 & even 800 freestyle, the 200 & 400 IM & the 200 butterfly, plus relays.
A tall order for anyone to win 4-5 individual golds, especially one so young.
Ledecky didn’t hang back in Fukuoka. She just doesn’t have as much speed as Titmus and McIntosh.
Her best shot at individual gold is the 400. With Summer’s upward trajectory, it may be more difficult for her to defend than we think. The 200 will be very tough against MOC and Siobhan Haughey.
Of course Titmus is on an upwards trajectory too…..amazingly!
Tough against Siobhan Haughey when Haughey is older and is a second slower?
Seems false.
Tough against Moc when she is younger and looks fast this year especially in 200.
I didn’t dispute that lol.
She’s in an interesting position where she is extremely strong in both her events and could conceivably win them both… but they both have absolute phenoms in them and she could very easily end up defending neither.
I don’t really care who wins out of her and Mollie. Just want to see this Aussie team, arguably our best team in history, all perform to their best at the Olympics.
Do you think titmus will participate in the 800 in Paris?
If he doesn’t do it he could gain speed in the 200, does anyone know why he keeps doing it?
She mentioned that it helped her train the 400, but other than that…
There’s really no reason for her not to do it. She has said she doesn’t really train specifically for it and it’s after all her other racing is done. She’s the 3rd fastest all time in the event and it shouldn’t impact any of her other races so why not.
@giaan rooney
Exactly- its pretty much a ‘free’ medal for her ….
Does ‘an Olympic medal’ no longer count as a motivating factor?
It’s after all of her more important races. I see no good reason for her to not swim it and go after that Olympic medal. Not likely to catch Ledecky in that if Ledecky maintains form, but a shot at silver or bronze seems like a nice consolation in an after thought race.
I did not want to express it as if an Olympic medal did not matter, I only mentioned it because repeating the gold medal in the Olympics is very complicated and given the great rivalry he has both with O Callaghan in the 200 freestyle and with Mcintosh in the 400, it is very difficult. .
I only commented that if it focused more on those categories it would be easier to go for gold, but clearly any medal in the 800 is also very important.
In this comment you refer to Titmus as “he” and “it”. In your previous comment you refer to her three times as “he”. What is your problem?
Sorry, i dont speak english
Mark – in other languages pronouns work differently. Please be empathetic to those who have English as a second language that they might make errors in grammar. That doesn’t discredit their ideas or opinions.
She’s said her main reason for racing the 800 is because it’s at the end of the program and won’t hinder her main events the 400 and 200. By the sounds of it she’s not serious about the 800 and is swimming it because she can and there’s a medal shot
Titmus’s 400 Free at Fukuoka was epic and I’m sure she will give us something special to remember at Paris.
Off-topic: Not sure if this has been mentioned somewhere else but Stephanie Rice, triple Olympic gold medallist, is appearing on SAS Australia on Channel 7. So far she has crawled through a pipe under the Jordanian desert, popped a shoulder, thrown a live hand grenade and had her shoulder popped back in!
Wow, sounds like she is in a great mind space….she is going to be really tough to beat.
Tokyo – 🥇 🥇 🥉
Paris – 🥇 🥇 🥈
800 free?
You counted the relay, 200 free, 400 free, right? did you forget the 800?
Australia will win relay and could be other gold in 200 or 400 free (only one event)
Oh I stuffed up haha
Should be
Tokyo 🥇 🥇 🥈 🥉
Paris 🥇 🥇 🥈 🥇
I think Titmus is determined to defend her 200 free title and break her teammate’s WR