Aussie teen Ariarne Titmus shocks world after beating the unbeatable Katie Ledecky
Australian teenager Ariarne Titmus has done what no-one else ever thought possible - she beat the unbeatable Katie Ledecky and the American was quick to show her disapproval.
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It will be remembered as the swim that was heard around the world.
Australia’s Ariarne Titmus did what no-one else ever thought was possible - she beat the unbeatable Katie Ledecky.
The Tasmanian teenager lived up to her nickname of the Terminator with one of the most astonishing performances ever seen at the world championships, when she mowed down her American rival on the last lap to win the women’s 400m freestyle gold.
“I feel pretty normal, it was just a swimming race,” Titmus said.
Katie Ledecky gets run down by 18-year-old Australian Ariarne Titmus in the last 50 meters, loses a major international 400m freestyle for the first time. pic.twitter.com/Vh3vMeZbTC
— Nick Zaccardi (@nzaccardi) July 21, 2019
“(My coach) Dean (Boxall) said to me before the race there’s three outcomes, you could swim great, you could swim bad but you’ll still wake up tomorrow so it’s all ok
“There was no pressure coming into this swim meet. It seemed like there was but I just wanted to come in and fight as hard as I could, the last 50m I gave it everything so I’m pretty happy.”
Titmus went out hard and led for the first half of the race but when Ledecky made her move at the 250m mark, it looked like the Australian’s chances were over.
She was almost a full body length behind when they turned for home the last time but Titmus finished stronger, reaching the wall in a career best time of three minutes 58.76 seconds, more than a second ahead of Ledecky.
Both swimmers were left stunned by the result.
Titmus punched the air in ecstasy knowing she had just beaten the woman they’re already calling the GOAT while the American didn’t know what to do.
When Titmus moved over towards Ledecky in the hope of getting a handshake or a hug from her rival, she was left disappointed. The American turned her back and spoke to her teammate Leah Smith instead, but Titmus didn’t care one bit.
“I knew I’d have to take it out hard to be with her because her third 100m is still a lot better than mine,” Titmus said.
“To be honest, I kind of thought to myself just hang in there but she’s going to have more and you’re not going to get her then suddenly I just felt something.”
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