James Magnussen breaks down Mollie O’Callaghan’s 200m freestyle win over Ariarne Titmus at the Paris 2024 Olympics

Mollie O’Callaghan produced one of the swims of the Games to knock over training partner Ariarne Titmus. JAMES MAGNUSSEN takes us inside the race.

Mollie O'Callaghan took out gold in the 200m freestyle. Picture: Sarah Stier/Getty Images

This is the race we have all been waiting for – the showdown between the two training partners Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan.

What tactics will coach Dean Boxall give each of his swimmers?

They both broke the world record at the Olympic trials, but as we’ve seen so far these Olympics, the times are not all that fast and it’s just about the racing.

First lap

Mollie with the better of the two starts, she’s got a good stroke length on Arnie straight off the top. It will be interesting to see if she takes it out faster to win in this final than she did in the heat and in the semi-final.

Arnie and Mollie are breathing towards each other in the first lap, which means they’re going to be breathing away from each other on the last lap.

Mollie is definitely not leaving it to the last lap tonight, they’re almost level at the turn.

Mollie: 27.01s (5th, -0.01s behind Arnie)

Arnie: 27.00s (4th, +0.01s ahead of Mollie)

It begins: Ariarne Titmus (R) and Mollie O'Callaghan (L) dive into the pool for the final. Picture: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

Second lap

Arnie is breathing towards Mollie again on the way back. So she’s going to breathe towards her the whole race, which was interesting.

Siobhan Haughey is the one looking to spoil the Aussie party, she’s taking this out hard and taking the fight to the Australians.

Ariarne has really accelerated now into the 100m turn and kicks out strongly.

Mollie: 29.06s, 56.07s (5th, -0.19s behind Arnie)

Arnie; 28.88s, 55.88s (2nd, +0.19s ahead of Mollie)

Ariarne Titmus chose to breathe towards Mollie O’Callaghan the whole way. Picture: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

Third lap

Ariarne has come up with a six-speed kick straight off the breakout.

This is her part of the race here for Arnie, if Mollie can keep within an arm’s length here, she can catch her on this last turn.

Arnie though is really putting the hammer down now, she knows she needs to get clear on this lap. Siobhan Haughey is hanging with them and is still in the lead at the final turn.

Here comes Mollie’s final turn and there is only 0.1s in it.

Mollie: 29.22s, 1:25.29 (3rd, -0.12s behind Arnie)

Arnie: 29.29s, 1:25.17 (2nd, +0.12s ahead of Mollie)

Final lap

Look at that turn from Mollie. Her underwater work is just so superior. It looks like she’s already come up in front.

Mollie is making the move now. She looks like she is finishing the strongest. She is out in front, Siobhan is still second. But here comes Titmus in the last 10m. She is going to bring home the silver. But Mollie has won it by half a second.

Mollie: 27.98s, 1:53.27 (1st, +0.54s ahead of Arnie)

Arnie: 28.64s, 1:53.81 (2nd, -0.54s behind Mollie)

Mollie O'Callaghan touches in comfortably ahead of Ariarne Titmus. Picture: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

What went right for Mollie?

Mollie was out faster tonight, she gave herself a better chance to accelerate off that third turn, and that’s where she does it. Off that third turn. She held that underwater kick an extra 5m and broke out in front of both Arnie and Siobhan. Mollie then accelerated through to that 175m mark and was able to hold Arnie off at the end.

Arnie was finishing slightly stronger in that last 10m but by then Mollie had put too much of a gap from that last turn. She raced it exactly how she needed to to win the gold medal. That’s what it’s about at the Olympics, not the time, the race for gold.

It was a ballsy race move from Molly. She went out faster, she put it on the line. She really worked out last turn. That bodes really well for her 100m freestyle as well.

Now we watch to see if Mollie can turn this Olympics into something special. Can she win gold in the 100m and 4x200m as well to win four gold medals.

She could be our most successful Olympian by the end of Paris from just two Games. What a rare talent.

What went wrong for Arnie?

Arnie would be looking back knowing she dropped the hammer on that third 50m, but just wasn’t able to break Mollie.

She did nothing wrong, that’s her race style and she did everything she could.

It’s been a big week for Arnie. That’s already 1.4km worth of racing so she just didn’t quite have the same legs that she did at our trials eight weeks ago when there were no semi-finals to worry about in this event.

It goes to show how hard it is to defend an Olympic title.

Originally published as James Magnussen breaks down Mollie O’Callaghan’s 200m freestyle win over Ariarne Titmus at the Paris 2024 Olympics