Ariarne Titmus
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Ariarne Titmus

Tokyo 200m and 400m Freestyle Olympic Swimming Gold

Ariarne Titmus is the reigning Olympic Champion in the Women’s 200m and 400m freetsyle.

Swimming into the history books and Australians’ hearts at the Olympics, Ariarne at the Tokyo Games won two gold medals, a silver and a bronze plus was responsible for defeating arguably the world’s greatest female swimmer in Katie Ledecky earning herself the nickname “The Terminator”.

Those are the parts of Ariarne Titmus’ story that many Australians already know. But just four months ago, in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics, the 20-year-old swimming star from Tasmania doubted any of it would come to pass.

Ariarne was nursing an injury, a chink in the armour that at the time her camp referred to in a statement as a “minor left shoulder complaint”. The truth was anything but minor. She had injured her shoulder pretty badly and was unable to do a proper training session until March leading into the Games.

Ariarne had lost quite a bit of fitness, she had lost the feel for the water. It was a physical and mental battle. Mindful of not wanting anybody to think she was making excuses as she headed into her first Olympics, Ariarne kept the extent of her injury quiet.

Once she was eventually cleared to commence rigorous training after months of physiotherapy, she got into the pool only to realise her arms felt less like the propellers they needed to be in order to defeat her main rival, US swimmer Katie Ledecky – a woman who had never been beaten in Olympic competition – and more like they were just patting the water. Whilst this did open up some self doubt about her ability to be at her best at the Olympics, Ariarne stayed the course training like an animal in the lead-up to the Games, and never shied away from the mounting pressure surrounding her looming showdown with Ledecky.

In fact, she bought into it!!

When the time came for her to swim the 400m freestyle against Ledecky on July 26, in what was dubbed one of the biggest events at the Games, Ariarne was the calmest she had ever been leading into a major competition and believed she could win.

And so, she did.

In an epic race that has already entered national swimming lore, and after giving Ledecky almost an entire body’s length of a lead, Ariarne came from behind to dethrone her in the eighth and final lap.

Ariarne and Coach Dean Boxall had a plan. They knew it would come down to the last 50m and they were right. The rest is history!!!

Ariarne would go on to medal again – gold in the 200m freestyle (again beating Ledecky) and silver in the 800m freestyle (which Ledecky won).

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