Training partners Arnie and Mollie ready to push each other for Olympic gold

After giving Katie Ledecky the cold shoulder, Ariarne Titmus gave her short shrift – but now she races training partner Mollie O’Callaghan in a mate-against-mate battle.

Ariarne Titmus with her gold medal, left; Mollie O’Callaghan after her 4 x 100m relay gold; coach Dean Boxall

Ariarne Titmus was standing next to her starting block at La Defense Arena when she turned her back on Katie Ledecky. Pretended she didn’t exist. Didn’t even want to look at her.

She blew Ledecky and Summer McIntosh out of the water in the so-called race of the century but her toughest assignment of the Paris Olympics is yet to come.

Titmus joined Dawn Fraser as the only Australian female swimmers to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the same event.

Having defended her 400m title in the most extraordinarily emphatic fashion, leading from post to post in front of a deafening audience that included Snoop Dogg, Tom Cruise and the coolest of the lot – Fraser – Titmus now gets the chance in the 200m freestyle to do what Dawn never did. Go back-to-back in a second event.

It will be Titmus’s most searching examination. An in-house, all-Australian, mate-against-mate battle with her Brisbane training partner Mollie O’Callaghan, once she’s recovered from turning the much-hyped 400m into a cakewalk.

“I can’t really believe that’s me, to be honest,” Titmus said of matching Fraser. “I just look at myself and I’m so normal. I love swimming and love getting out and representing our country and having fun. I hope no one looks at me any differently.

“I’m just the same old goofy Tassie girl out here, living out her dream, and I hope it goes to show anyone can do what they want to do if they work hard and believe in themselves.

“Here I am, I’m from little old Launie (Launceston), a town of 90,000, and I’m out here living the dream. I hope that inspires young kids back home.”

All things being equal, barring disasters, false starts, disqualifi­cations and unfathomable results in the heats and semi-finals, ­Titmus will go toe-to-toe, stroke-for-stroke and eyeball-to-eyeball with O’Callaghan at 5.41am on Tuesday, Australian time.

Ariarne Titmus celebrates winning the 400m freestyle in Paris ahead of rival Katie Ledecky. Picture: Adam Head

After giving Ledecky the cold shoulder, she gave her short shrift, clocking 3min57.49sec to win comfortably from Canada’s McIntosh (3:58.37) and the outclassed American (4:00.86).

“Oh, I’m a bit buggered,” Titmus said. “I feel relieved. It’s a different feeling, winning it again.

“I know what it takes to be Olympic champion and I know how hard it is racing in these circumstances at an Olympic Games. It’s not really like anything else. The noise and atmosphere and pressure and village life definitely makes performing well, hard. But I’m really happy to come out on top.”

Fraser, 86, is getting the royal treatment from the army of Australian supporters in Paris. They stop her outside La Defence Arena and tell her she’s a legend. She looks pretty chuffed by the attention and was in a chipper mood after Titmus’s victory.

Gina Rinehart and Dawn Fraser watch the swimming action at the Paris La Defense Arena Picture: Adam Head

“Absolutely fantastic,” Fraser told Fox Sports. “I’ve lost my voice from shouting, which I don’t often do. It was such a great night.

“Ariarne won’t sleep tonight. She might get maybe half an hour or an hour. I know what it’s like but she’ll come up really fresh. I can’t wait to see it.”

The 20-year-old O’Callaghan stunned Titmus by winning their 200m showdown at last year’s world championships at Fukuoka. They’re both coached by Dean Boxall, who separates them in most sessions, keeping them guessing about each other’s progress. Part of Boxall’s brief is to keep Titmus motivated now she’s tasted success.

Titmus secretly told Boxall last year that one of her life’s great missions was to become a mother. He used that info to rev her up for the Paris Games. At News Corp’s Greater Brisbane lunch in front of 200 guests last November, Boxall told Titmus: “I know how much you want to be a mother and how great you would be at it – I know you would eat all the right foods, give away the deli and give it everything. I want you over the next eight months to put that commitment into your swimming. What are you going to do?’’

Titmus laughed but Boxall’s point was taken. He reminded her that 6000-odd people had climbed Mount Everest but only 25 women had won the 400m … his way to prevent her becoming too content with her achievements.

“Don’t be the cat that gets the whiskers,’’ he said. “Be the hungry one you used to be out in the cold. Hungry and chasing the mouse.’’

Titmus devoured McIntosh and Ledecky in a thunderous, electrifying atmosphere in Paris. It was quite the night. Proceedings started with a woman delicately plucking the strings of a cello before the stadium started rocking and rolling.

Ariarne Titmus leads Katie Ledecky in the women's 400m freestyle heats before smashing the American in the final. Picture: Adam Pretty/Getty Images

By the 150m mark, Titmus had kicked clear. At 250m, she dropped the hammer, powering to a lead she was never going to relinquish while Boxall, as always, went berserk up in the stands.

“I felt pretty good the whole way,” Titmus said. “I definitely started to feel it in the last 100m. I left everything out there, gave everything I could. It’s probably not the time I thought I was capable of but living in the Olympic village makes it hard to perform. It’s definitely not made for high performance. It’s about who can really keep it together in the mind at an Olympics.”

Two swimmers, one coach, one gold medal up for grabs in the 200m. Titmus beat O’Callaghan in the Olympic trials in June.

The international flavour of the 400m in Paris lent itself to the Race of the Century tag but for competitiveness, the all-Australian sprint has always loomed as the most scintillating contest. They both broke the world record at the trials. Titmus just happened to beat it by a greater margin.

“We push each other every day,” O’Callaghan said.

Titmus’s success helped put Australia on top of the medal ladder on day one. 

Anthony Albanese joked that the Games should stop while Australia was still ahead as he lauded Titmus’s ­“extraordinary achievement”.

“I watched in the early semifinal where she came second, and certainly she looked at that time as though she had a bit more in her and certainly she did,” the Prime Minister said.

Originally published as Training partners Arnie and Mollie ready to push each other for Olympic gold