Ariarne Titmus’ family, fellow swimmers react to shock retirement
Ariarne Titmus’ family and fellow swimmers have led tributes to the Aussie Olympic great after she announced her sudden retirement from swimming.
Ariarne Titmus’ father Steve lauded his daughter Ariane’s decision to retire on top – even though it handed him one of the biggest challenges of his career.
Pool great Titmus is the daughter of Queensland Channel 7 sports reader Steve who faces the hugely emotional challenge of introducing news of his daughter’s shock retirement on tonight’s bulletin without letting rich sentiment of the occasion get to him.
“I have had a few challenges in my life and this will be one of them,’’ quipped Titmus who supported his daughter’s decision.
“It’s an emotional day. We are enormously excited for what lies ahead for Arnie. She has never been happier. We are so proud of what she achieved. She dared to dream and lived out those dreams.’’
The Titmus’ are a close family who moved from Tasmania together to further Ariarne’s swim career, a bold move but one which has paid massive dividends.
Ariarne’s mother Robyn said it was not her daughter’s initial intention to retire after the Paris Games but things changed when she took a year off.
“I don’t think she expected it would be a case of retiring now,’’ Robyn said.
“She felt she needed a break because she was doing it very young. Two Olympics in a row. She took time out but things change along the way. She kept the decision to herself for a while.
“She deserves every bit of success because of how dedicated and what a hard worker she was. We are more proud of her as the beautiful young lady she is. She has always kept humble. She had made a courageous decisionbut she went higher than she ever thought she would go.
“Now she can follow some other dreams no matter what they will be. Swimming is such a big commitment.
“It is a happy day for us. She took us on a wonderful journey and the gratitude she showed us is very special. She made the most of her opportunities.’’
The swimming superstar was full of praise for her parents and the commitment they made to help her chase a career on the world stage.
“Not many sane parents would have looked at their 14-year-old and gone ‘It’s all good, let’s just quit our jobs and move to Queensland next month and give you a chance’ but that’s really what happened. We moved to Queensland without a place to live,” she said.
“My dad didn’t have work. Mum and dad lived apart for six months. And that sacrifice was for me.
“I know without a doubt if we hadn’t moved to Queensland from our home in Tassie that this would all have never happened. And I will never ever be able to repay them. I am also grateful for my family because my mum, my dad, my sister, although they’ve been such supporters of my swimming career, they’ve just supported me as Ariarne.
“It wouldn’t have mattered if I had come first or last, I think they would have still supported me. I never felt the pressure that I had to make it.
“I’ve just always felt the love for me, the person, first and foremost and I’ll always be grateful for that.”
Titmus’ social accounts have been flooded with well wishes from hundreds of fellow swimmers, fans and Australian sporting legends.
Kaylee McKeown wrote: “You are incredible. Privileged to have witnessed a living legend in the sport.”
Madi Wilson said: “From that little girl that came in with that ‘deer in the headlights’ look to the fierce, strong and resilient woman I’ve watched you become. You inspire so many. I love you Arnie. What an incredible message for all to follow.”
Mollie O’Callaghan: “Congratulations on an amazing career, Arnie. So grateful to have trained alongside you. Wishing you all the best in the next chapter.”
Kyle Chalmers: “I’m so proud of you. You are a legend in and out of the pool. You’ve inspired me so much over the years and I am honoured to call you my friend. All the best with the next chapter of life.”
Rival and up and coming young star, Canadian swimming Summer McIntosh even offered Titmus well wishes:
“Congratulations on an incredible career and all the very best in your next chapter you will be missed,” she wrote.
TERMINATOR UNLEASHED: MOMENT ARNIE WAS DESTINED FOR GREATNESS
— Emma Greenwood
The Olympic gold medallist nicknamed “The Professor” has paid tribute to one of the greatest students swimming has known, praising retiring champion Ariarne Titmus for her AI-like learning ability about her greatest rival.
Paris Games sprint champion Cameron McEvoy, who was a teammate of Titmus’s on her first major championship team in 2017, hailed the retiring great as “one of the best distance swimmers to have ever come into the sport, across any gender, across any time”.
McEvoy remembers the hunger and vulnerability of a young Titmus - even-then known as “The Terminator” - on her first major team at the world championships in Budapest in 2017.
“I remember her before the 400m final, she was just talking about how nervous she was, how scared she wants to go up and race (Katie) Ledecky,” McEvoy said.
“Yet she was able to get up on those blocks, get fourth, do a massive best time.
“And the one thing I remember from that is not only how casual she was at being open about the fears she had before the race, but how much she was able to just willingly put them aside and just go and attack the race anyway - very Terminator like.”
After that first experience, McEvoy said he saw an athlete that “flipped the switch”.
“The following year, she won Commonwealth Games. The year after that she beat Katie Ledecky at the world champs.
“So very quickly, she learned - kind of like a Terminator, kind of got that in-built AI - how to go about learning on the world stage.
“It was a very quick introduction into the sport and then (her thought process was) I’m done with being a casual swimmer here, I’m going to dominate for the rest of my career.”
McEvoy, who made his first Olympic team as a teen relay swimming in the 100m and 200m freestyle relays and headed to his second Olympics in Rio the gold medal favourite in the 100m before missing the medals, had his own major break from the sport and thoughts of retirement after Tokyo before recommitting to the 50m and 31 is a four-time Olympian and gold medallist talking about the possibility of swimming on to a sixth Games at Brisbane in 2032.
He has revolutionised training for the sprint event though and can balance the regimen with family life, something he conceded was not possible for Titmus in the gruelling 400m, especially the way she had dedicated herself to the sport.
“She didn’t just go out and try and win the Olympics against a normal group of other people, she had to go and beat the current greatest of all time in that event.
“And so not only was it a general win, it’s effectively coming out and the benchmark is, there’s no one better than you.
“You have to have some type of mental veracity to be able to go after that in the first place,
and then to execute it, it’s pretty special.”
McEvoy may have had some insight into Titmus’s decision, saying he “knew it was coming”.
“Arnie is definitely one of the best distance swimmers to have ever come into the sport, across any gender, across any time,” he said.
“She’s an incredible swimmer. Had an incredible career. She’s an incredible woman, and personally, I wish she could have kept swimming longer.
“But there’s a lot more context to everyone’s story. And when it’s time to move on, it’s time to move on, and she can be extremely proud with what she was able to put down in the pool and the example that she led outside of the pool as well.”
Originally published as Ariarne Titmus’ family, fellow swimmers react to shock retirement
Titmus sought out Barty for advice on early retirement
