Ariarne Titmus stuns in jaw-dropping shoot as she reveals REAL reason she retired from swimming
In her first sit-down interview since quitting swimming, the four-time Olympic gold medallist explains why she walked away at the top of her game – and debuts a new look.
Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus opens up about her decision to retire, the perspective and peace she’s gained out of the pool – and what she’s looking forward to (and fearing) most.
Stellar: You shocked the nation a few weeks ago when – as a four-time world champion, four-time Olympic gold medallist and current 200m long course freestyle world record holder – you announced your retirement from competitive swimming at the age of 25, at the height of your career. The news dominated headlines. Were you expecting such an enormous response?
Ariarne Titmus: I knew it would be a shock to a lot of people. It was quite out of the blue. But I certainly wasn’t expecting the reception I received. The morning I hit “post” [on the announcement] at 8am Brisbane time, within half an hour, all over social media there were already articles and clips. I was at the top of my game, I’m still only 25, and I was concerned that the wider public wouldn’t understand my reasoning. But I haven’t had one person asking me why. They’ve all been so supportive.
I knew that winning Olympic gold and racing for your country, you have such an impact on sports culture in Australia – but I couldn’t believe the impact I’d had on people in their personal lives. [I got] so many messages from parents saying, “My daughter/son took up swimming or they believed in themselves more because of you.” I tried as best I could to read as many as I could, but it was bigger and better than I ever expected.
Stellar: What do you think drew a bigger public response: your retirement news or the reaction to some of your Olympic gold medal moments?
Ariarne Titmus: When I’m competing, I usually delete social media off my phone. But because I had Instagram and Facebook on my phone this whole time, my phone crashed two days in a row. It had a red line down the screen. Maybe it couldn’t cope. I was going through three [full phone] charges a day because I was trying to reply to everyone.
Listen to the full interview on the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About:
Stellar: You had always planned on competing at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. So why did you come to this decision now?
Ariarne Titmus: I always intended to go to LA. I totally believed I could go three in a row in the 400m [women’s freestyle]. That was my ultimate goal. When I first won in Tokyo [in the 200m and 400m at the Games in 2021], that was what I saw for my future. But winning silver in Paris [at the 2024 Games, where Titmus was beaten in the 200m final by her rival and training partner Mollie O’Callaghan] stopped that run. I made the decision about eight months before Paris that I would be having a 12-month break after Paris. I was running on fumes after the 2023 World Championships.
I first represented Australia when I was 14. So it’s not that I’m 25 and I’m so young. My athletic career has been representing this country for a decade. When I was on my 12-month break, I had so many career opportunities pop up outside of swimming. And when I had the time to focus on them without having to worry about training, I realised a lot of passion lay there. And I just wanted to soak up every opportunity that I had.
Ariarne Titmus (continued): But then, in my personal life – and this was really the crux of the decision – you have to be quite a selfish person to be an athlete. I’ve lived my life not caring that I never got to spend birthdays with friends or never being able to go to family events because I’ve got to be in bed for training, or not enjoying time with family over Christmas or Easter because I’m focused on training the next day. But I wasn’t willing to go back to the life where I made the decision to put my family second.
I also met my partner right after the Olympics [Titmus went public with her boyfriend, Melbourne investment analyst Mac Powell, at the Australian Open in January]. I wasn’t willing to put that on the back burner. If I hadn’t been Olympic champion or world record holder this wouldn’t be the decision I’m making. But because I can look at myself and know I’ve absolutely done everything you can in the sport, and winning more medals wasn’t going to change the way I feel, it felt like the right time to step away.
Stellar: How do you think you’ll feel when the LA Olympics come around, knowing that you could’ve been there?
Ariarne Titmus: That will be the biggest test. Although I’m very content with my decision, it will be a strange feeling not competing. With a crowd of 40,000 people, that was actually very enticing. I had to say so many hypotheticals to myself and think about moments in the future and whether I was going to be OK in those moments not being there, and LA is a big one. I hope I am there in some capacity, but more than anything, I’m excited now to sit back and watch and get amongst it. The last time I watched an Olympic Games was over 10 years ago.
When I commentated at the World Championships in July and I was on the sideline in a very different role, I didn’t feel any desire to be part of the team. I was just a fan of the sport and didn’t have a sense of FOMO because I wasn’t there. When that happened, I thought it would be too hard and not worth it for me to go back just to win more medals. It’s something I’ve seen with a lot of athletes in the past – they’re just continuing to compete for the sake of medals, even though they’re not loving it like they used to, or their body is against them and they’re suffering injuries. And I’m just not willing to go through that.
Stellar; Your coach, Dean Boxall, became almost as famous as you for his exuberant celebration of your 400m Gold in Tokyo, which went viral. How did he take it when you told him you wanted to retire?
Ariarne Titmus: Did he try to talk you out of it? [Earlier in the year] Dean and I started mapping out when I had to be back at training. He said, “I think you have to be slowly getting back into the water in May.” I said “I’m not ready to have that conversation yet. I’m not ready to get back in the water. I need you to give me a little more time …” I had no fire to get back in. It wasn’t that I’d lost any love for the sport – I love swimming – [but] I didn’t have any drive to go back to that unrelenting pursuit I’ve always known. I thought [Dean] was going to try and bring me back and say, “Come on, Arnie, you can win another one.” He was actually the total opposite. He said, “I totally get it; you’ve got to do what’s right for you.” I’d have never expected that from Dean because he’s been the one my entire career pushing me, getting me to the pool and being the motivator for me every day of my life while I’ve been swimming. He said “Go and live life, have fun”. And my family were the same. They understand how hard it is.
Ahead of the Paris Olympics in April last year, you were on the cover of Stellar alongside fellow “golden girls” of swimming Emma McKeon, Mollie O’Callaghan and Kaylee McKeown. How did they take the news?
Messages from Emma, Mollie and Kaylee were all beautiful. They’re all Olympic gold medallists in their own right. But beyond that, they’re past swimmers who I’ve now become friends with, and even rivals. [US swimmer and fierce rival] Katie Ledecky was one of the first people to message me: “Congratulations and we’ll miss you on the pool deck.” The humility of the rivalry we’ve had, I’m really proud of that. We’ve both carried ourselves so well and had great sportsmanship. A lot of them said to me, “I didn’t think you were going to come back, Arnie. You look so happy.” It was funny they could see that in me.
Listen to the full interview on the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About:
You’ve had to contend with being pitted against other female swimmers as rivals for your whole career. Do you think that dynamic will shift now that you’re no longer competing?
Absolutely. I’ve always prided myself as someone [who] was the ultimate competitor in the pool. But out of the water, I tried to treat everyone the same and just be a good person, a great training partner or a good teammate. When you’ve got people in your events swimming extremely well, you almost feel this fire in you as a competitor, and that’s gone.
I’m so proud to be Australian and to represent our country so I’d never want people to not reach my records or have the success I had – I want Australia to be the best in the world. And we are. I’ve left the sport, Emma has left the sport, there’s been a number of female swimmers who have left the swim team in the past two years. There’s a massive shift as younger athletes come through. The success of the women’s team, I feel so incredibly proud to have been a part of and hopefully contributed to the dynasty that’s continuing.
You were born in Tasmania but recently made the move from Brisbane, where you lived for a decade, to join your partner Mac in Melbourne. Does this feel like a fresh start both personally and professionally?
It’s a total new chapter. [Mac] never watched the Olympics and didn’t know who I was. It was very humbling; he got to know me for me and did long distance this whole time, which has been really tough. Once I’d made the decision to stop swimming, I didn’t have to be in Queensland to be with my coach. I thought, well, [Mac] has to be here for his work, I don’t want to be away from him, so I made the shift. I’ll still be up in Queensland here and there. All my family are up there. We’ve got a few holidays planned, which I’m excited for. I really haven’t holidayed my entire swimming career.
Listen to the full interview on the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About:
You’re also set to star in the Nine Network’s upcoming reality series Shark!, which will film in the Bahamas and see you and five other celebrities confronting a fear of sharks. Why was this something you wanted to do?
This is seriously facing my biggest fear. I’m petrified of the ocean, and when this opportunity came to swim with sharks in the open ocean, not caged, I initially said
“No way.” But then I thought, I’ve been put outside my comfort zone in such high-pressure and high-stakes environments, I’ve always thrived in those moments. This is a chance for me to grow as a person, face my fears and hopefully look at this animal in a different light. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, getting to be up close and personal to these massive animals, taking the fear out of it.
Luckily you can swim very, very, very fast … There is that as well. I don’t know if it might be much help with a shark, though.
Listen to the full interview with Ariarne Titmus now on a new episode of the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About.
The full cover shoot was first published in Stellar, via The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA).
For more from Stellar, click here.
More Coverage
Originally published as Ariarne Titmus stuns in jaw-dropping shoot as she reveals REAL reason she retired from swimming
