How Ariarne Titmus almost picked a different sport

In her first in-depth interview since her Olympic gold rush, Aussie swimming champion Ariarne Titmus reveals how she overcame a hidden injury to grab gold - and weighs in on the notorious way her coach Dean Boxall reacted to her win.

Two gold medals, a silver and a bronze. The defeat of arguably the world’s greatest female swimmer. And, at a time when the collective psyche seems to fracture more each day, a moment when the country came together, united in national pride as a woman known as “The Terminator” made history in the Olympic pool.

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.

She 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.

“I actually injured my shoulder pretty badly. I didn’t do a proper training session till March,” Titmus tells Stellar, in the first in-depth interview she’s given since she returned from Tokyo.

“There were definitely points I doubted myself.” (Picture: Ariarne Titmus for Stellar)

Golden girl Ariarne Titmus stars on the cover of the fifth-anniversary issue of Stellar magazine. (Picture: Ariarne Titmus for Stellar)

“And even then I wasn’t at the level I wanted to be. I’d lost quite a bit of fitness, I’d lost the feel for the water. Going through an injury obviously puts a physical strain on you, but more than anything it was tough mentally.”

Mindful of not wanting anybody to think she was making excuses as she headed into her first Olympics, Titmus kept the extent of her injury quiet. And 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.

“I thought to myself, how am I going to get back to the level that I need to win? There were definitely points when I doubted myself and my ability to be at my best.”

But Titmus stayed the course. She trained 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.

(Picture: Clive Rose/Getty Images)

“It’s quite an honour to be compared to Katie because she’s an unbelievable swimmer,” says Titmus.

“It’s a pinch-myself moment for me. Whenever I was asked about Katie, I was very open in my discussion about her. And that’s not something I regret.”

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, she says, “It was the calmest I’d ever been at a major competition in my life. It’s pretty weird because there was the most expectation on me. It was our first race together – and the biggest race between us.”

The night prior, amid a social-media blackout, she played Candy Crush on her phone, and watched reruns of Friends. When she went to bed and closed her eyes, she says, “I can remember thinking, you know what? You can really win this.”

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, Titmus came from behind to dethrone her in the eighth and final lap.

Olympians Kaylee McKeown and Ariarne Titmus on their return home at Brisbane Airport. (Picture: Brad Fleet)

“The whole time, I wasn’t stressed about being behind. I kept telling myself: this is right where you need to be,” she recalls.

“But watching it back, I was like, no wonder everyone had a heart attack! I was actually pretty far behind. How the hell did I catch back up? But [my coach] Dean [Boxall] and I had a plan. We knew it would come down to the last 50m. I just absolutely went ballistic. When I hit the wall I had no idea I had won.”

The race wasn’t the only thing that went to plan. For those who know the larger-than-life Boxall, his unbridled reaction of joy – ripping off his face mask, fist-pumping the air and wildly thrusting his lower half against a glass barrier – was also expected. Many found his celebration endearing; others accused him of overshadowing Titmus’ moment and displaying an unhealthy dose of toxic masculinity while he was at it. Titmus takes issue with their criticisms.

“It’s really disrespectful to me for people to say that,” she tells Stellar.

“It’s really uncalled for. I’m the person who works with him, and I know 100 per cent that’s not at all what it is.”

Titmus, who moved with her family from Launceston to Brisbane in 2015 so she could train with Boxall, says she and the coach “just clicked. There was never really a moment that I felt I couldn’t say anything to him or couldn’t be honest, or felt awkward or scared. That’s why it works, as well. Because he’s not just my coach. He’s a great friend. And he’s sacrificed so much for me, so it’s definitely a partnership. I feel like he’s won these medals just as much as I have.”

Ariarne Titmus with her family last Christmas. (Picture: Supplied)

Titmus would go on to medal again – gold in the 200m freestyle (again beating Ledecky) and silver in the 800m freestyle (which Ledecky won). It was when she swam the 200m freestyle relay, Titmus says, that the enormity of her Olympic experience – the pressure, the emotions, the praise – finally got to her. She would win a bronze.

“I was pretty disappointed with how I swam for the team,” she adds.

“After we got our medal, I came back to the team room and burst into tears. But that was really the only time that I felt I had to kind of pull myself together.”

So, after all she achieved in Tokyo, what was the highlight? “Obviously winning and being on the podium was a feeling like no other. But when I got back to my room after winning the 400m, my roommates [fellow swimmers Cate Campbell, Kaylee McKeown and Tamsin Cook] had put some nice little chocolates and hand-written signs that said ‘Olympic champion sleeps here’ on my bed,” she recalls. “You don’t even realise it could mean so much. But small things matter.”

Campbell, a four-time Olympian who knows a lot about the pressure to perform, says she was in awe of her roommate, telling Stellar, “She faced the pressure head-on and used it as motivation. She never shied away from the Ledecky battle. She had belief she’d done all she could to beat someone who was unbeatable. It’s like saying you’re going to beat Usain Bolt or Muhammad Ali; that’s what she was up against. It was a pleasure to room with Arnie; she’s an incredible woman.”

Titmus’ grace in the spotlight has, much like Ian Thorpe and Cathy Freeman before her, made her one of Australia’s most instantly marketable Olympians. Reports predict she could make up to $4 million off the back of endorsements. And Titmus is now ready to embrace the attention, starting with the role of Lexus Melbourne Cup Day ambassador. Because before swimming there were horses.

Ariarne Titmus aged eight on her horse Robbie. (Picture: Supplied)

“I grew up on a property with horses from the age of four and competed in show jumping, which I absolutely loved. I was a little better in the pool, so I moved on from my show-jumping dream but I never lost my passion for horses.”

One thing that will take a little longer for her to navigate is the interest in her romantic life. Titmus is in a relationship with fellow swimmer and squad member Kyle Niesler, and while he appears on her Instagram feed, she’s keen to keep her personal life out of the public eye.

“My life as an athlete is very much on show,” she admits.

“And I want people to know who I am as a person, that I’m known as someone who’s kind and down-to-earth. But there are some parts of my life that I want to keep private. [Kyle has] been a massive support to me. I’d prefer to keep what we have really sacred.”

Titmus is now having two months away from the pool, in which she’ll turn 21 (on September 7) and spend time with friends and family. “We’ve always been a close family,” she says of her dad Steve, mum Robyn and younger sister Mia.

Ariarne Titmus stars on the cover of this Sunday’s fifth-anniversary issue of Stellar.

“On Sunday morning, I still jump into bed with Mum and have a coffee. I often think, how did my parents have the belief in me [at] 14 to make such a huge change in our lives and move to Brisbane? But they saw how dedicated I was. I knew I wanted to be an Olympian. I guess it’s paid off now.”

But it still hasn’t quite sunk in. “I don’t think it will until I retire, to be honest,” she says, laughing. Not that she has plans to do that any time soon – Titmus reveals there are

at least two more Olympic Games to tick off her bucket list.

“I set out my whole life to become an Olympic champion. It’s something I dreamt of since I was a little girl, which is so silly because at the time I had no idea what it would take,” she says.

“Now that I’ve actually done it? It’s pretty crazy. But once you get a taste of what it feels like to win on the big stage, it becomes addictive and you want to keep feeling that feeling. I definitely feel like I’ve got more in me.”