After Canadian teen sensation Summer McIntosh broke the World Record in the 400 free at last week’s Canadian Trials, the former World Record holder Ariarne Titmus of Australia spoke with 9Now to share her reaction to her newfound rival’s success.
Titmus, 22, shared candidly that seeing her record get broken was a “tough pill to swallow” but that she’s focused on looking at the “good in everything.” She explained that it’s probably a good thing that it was broken when it was as it gives her “a bit of extra fire in the belly” as she prepares for her next matchup with McIntosh.
She went on the say that it’s exciting for the sport and for the 400 freestyle, specifically. Titmus then teased the “exciting” showdown that is to come between herself, McIntosh, and former world record-holder Katie Ledecky at the Paris 2024 Olympics. While it seems like a lock that they will all race in Tokyo, their first meeting since McIntosh’s record could come sooner than that. McIntosh was recently named to the Canadian World Championships team for this summer in Fukuoka and Titmus and Ledecky each have opportunities to qualify for that meet in the coming months.
Both Titmus and Ledecky should easily win the 400 free at their respective World Championships Trials meets, meaning that if they both elect to go, we will see McIntosh vs Ledecky vs Titmus later this year.
Titmus is expected to race later this month at the 2023 Australian Swimming Championships in Queensland. She is entered in the 200, 400, and 800 freestyle as the top seed and Australian record holder in all three. She will then have a few more weeks of training before vying for a spot on the World Championships roster at the Australian Trials in June 2023.
The three of them have only raced each other once before in the 400 freestyle. At Tokyo 2020 the three of them swam in the 400 freestyle final as Ariarne Titmus won with a 3:56.69, followed by Katie Ledecky with a 3:57.36 for silver and Li Bingjie with a 4:01.08 for bronze. McIntosh settled for 4th in Tokyo with a 4:02.42 and has since dropped over six seconds off that time.
McIntosh broke Titmus’ world record of 3:56.40 that was set at the 2022 Australian Swimming Championships.
Agreed. McIntosh will be untouchable. This isn’t really even Ledecky’s main event and I would be surprised if she put a lot of focus trying to win gold here. For Titmus, however, this IS her event. Not surprised she’s worried, since it’s pretty likely by 2024 McIntosh will be the favorite in both the 200 and the 400. She might even break the 200 WR by then. I see a likely scenario where McIntosh gets 200/400 golds and Ledecky claims 800/1600, leaving Arnie with a big haul of silver.
Titmus problem is she doesn’t have other events like summer or Katie where she is the huge favorite, summer has the im’s ledecky the 800/1500 this is her olympics for titmus
Oops, meant to say 1500, not 1600.
Ariarne Titmus is like Ryan Lochte. Phenomenal swimmer in her own right, but her stellar accomplishments will always be overshadowed by the GOATs of her generation. One on the back half of her career (Ledecky) and one rising star (McIntosh). Had Titmus, like Lochte, been in a different cohort of swimmers, they would be THE star. Tough luck though being great yet sandwiched between an indisputable legend and one who soon will be.
Summer gold and she will probably dominate for years to come.
Titmus is in the best spot to defend her title. Summer has momentum. Titmus has Dean, he is not dumb. He knows what needs to be done to win. Summer will be exposed just like KL. Team Dean!
As much as the experience Ariarne and Dean (and even Katie and Anthony) is valuable, I feel like the best bet is always the younger swimmer to continue their momentum since they’ve likely got more room to improve. Considering Summer also has been doing this off of switching her training base completely this year, I’d pick Summer. It’s going to be fun either way!
IM oh-so-Humble O, the coach might take a page from Bob Bowman’s playbook (instead of Shane Tusup’s), which is to say… help to direct all of the attention to the winning swimmer by playing lower-key, lower-profile mentor in the gallery. Merely an opinion. As to the 400: We will just have to wait. Provocative, no? One thing only is certain: No matter where we live, swimming fans all will bow to and be awed by the winner, both this year and next. Why? Because the first love we experience is the sport itself.
I think her and her coach miscalculated summer’s progression in the 400 free they both figured Macintosh would not be close, to the 3:56 range until the olympics that record must have sent a shock through their spine. I don’t think titmus will be close to 3:56 this year she started training way too late I mean summer and ledecky have been at it since last October.
Titmus had the same amount of time off in 2021 and still broke the world record.
I think you are underestimating Arnie who has a lot more in the tank.
Titmus is a fighter. Her and McIntosh and Ledecky will all push each other to vary fast swims. wouldn’t be surprised to see 2 sub 3:56’s at the Paris Olympics, and wouldn’t be surprised to see another swimmer or two break 4:00.
Mcintosh already got close to sub 3:56 i like her odds to go under
WRs are interesting but I imagine what Titmus and Ledecky most care about is winning golds at the Olympics, so hopefully they are most focused on that. “WR holder” turns into “Former WR holder”, but “Olympic Champion” is forever.
Paris is giving feelings of Beijing 2008. This is going to be the best in a while
He and Michael were obsessed with times. If you look at half of Phelps’ winning races, he’s pissed after the race lol.
I still remember Phelps was visibly pissed after the 2 fly in Beijing mostly because his goggles filled with water but part of it was also because he didn’t break 1:52 but I find it really impressive that he still not only won gold but broke the WR by .06 despite the faulty goggles because of his stroke count.
Whether it’s a world record or former world record holder their names is already on the record books.
Summer has said many times that she isn’t focused on records either