Ariarne Elizabeth Titmus is an Australian swimmer. She won both the women’s 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and she also maintains the world record in the long course and short course 400-meter freestyle.
Titmus was born in Launceston, a small city in Tasmania, an island south of mainland Australia and was in the water from an early age, since she was in elementary school. She swam in high school and college and won several competitions.
In 2015, Titmus was, and still currently, coached by Dean Boxall. He has been a swim coach for more than twenty years and currently leads the swim club St Peters Western based in Brisbane.
In the 2017 world championships, Titmus won her first major medal — a bronze, in a relay.
In 2019, Titmus beat Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky, an American competitive swimmer who has won 6 Olympic individual gold medals and 14 world championship individual gold medals, by winning gold in the event. Two years later, the best middle-distance swimmer in the world was taken by Titmus at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.
“When we first came together, Arnie was 38 seconds off Katie in the 800-meter freestyle, she was 16 seconds off Katie in the 400 and she was eight seconds off Katie in the 200,” said Boxall, Titmus’s coach. “We never even thought about the Olympics. We were just getting on that journey and making sure she was getting better and better.”
The rivalry between Titmus and Ledecky began when Ledecky did not acknowledge her younger rival after being beaten.
“Definitely when we’re in the pool racing, she’s my biggest rival,” Titmus said. “It doesn’t really matter who she is: I want to beat her. But then as a person, I seriously respect her. I know what it’s taken to get to this level, and she’s been at this level since I was 12 years old. I respect the work that she’s put into swimming. She’s changed female swimming.”
Despite all her achievements, she will be absent in the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, which is the 19th edition of the FINA World Aquatics Championship and the most significant international swim meet of the year. Her reason is that she didn’t need to be there and she didn’t feel like going.
“I just really wanted to think about the long term,” she said. “And I really don’t care — it doesn’t bother me that I’m not going to be in the headlines or the media or the spotlight when the world championships are on. That’s not why I swim. I swim because I love it and I want to perform on the biggest stage, which for me is the Olympic Games.”
While Ledecky will be swimming at world championships, Litmus, halfway across the world, in Australia may be sound asleep.
Titmus was born in Launceston, a small city in Tasmania, an island south of mainland Australia and was in the water from an early age, since she was in elementary school. She swam in high school and college and won several competitions.
In 2015, Titmus was, and still currently, coached by Dean Boxall. He has been a swim coach for more than twenty years and currently leads the swim club St Peters Western based in Brisbane.
In the 2017 world championships, Titmus won her first major medal — a bronze, in a relay.
In 2019, Titmus beat Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky, an American competitive swimmer who has won 6 Olympic individual gold medals and 14 world championship individual gold medals, by winning gold in the event. Two years later, the best middle-distance swimmer in the world was taken by Titmus at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.
“When we first came together, Arnie was 38 seconds off Katie in the 800-meter freestyle, she was 16 seconds off Katie in the 400 and she was eight seconds off Katie in the 200,” said Boxall, Titmus’s coach. “We never even thought about the Olympics. We were just getting on that journey and making sure she was getting better and better.”
The rivalry between Titmus and Ledecky began when Ledecky did not acknowledge her younger rival after being beaten.
“Definitely when we’re in the pool racing, she’s my biggest rival,” Titmus said. “It doesn’t really matter who she is: I want to beat her. But then as a person, I seriously respect her. I know what it’s taken to get to this level, and she’s been at this level since I was 12 years old. I respect the work that she’s put into swimming. She’s changed female swimming.”
Despite all her achievements, she will be absent in the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, which is the 19th edition of the FINA World Aquatics Championship and the most significant international swim meet of the year. Her reason is that she didn’t need to be there and she didn’t feel like going.
“I just really wanted to think about the long term,” she said. “And I really don’t care — it doesn’t bother me that I’m not going to be in the headlines or the media or the spotlight when the world championships are on. That’s not why I swim. I swim because I love it and I want to perform on the biggest stage, which for me is the Olympic Games.”
While Ledecky will be swimming at world championships, Litmus, halfway across the world, in Australia may be sound asleep.
