A swim for the ages and a swim for the moment

Australia has won more than 500 summer Olympic medals, nearly 150 of them gold. All glister, but a precious few go straight into the hall of fame. Ariarne Titmus’ 400 metres triumph in Tokyo is one.

What puts Titmus’ swim on its own pedestal? There are the expectations, so weighty on one so young. Coming into the Games, even non-aficionados could sense that they’d better get to a TV for this.

Ariarne Titmus’ win is up there with some of Australia’s greatest sporting victories. Credit:

For Ian Thorpe, sitting in the commentary box, it must have brought back memories of the way the whole country dwelled on him at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and in his race-of-the-century against Pieter van den Hoogenband and Michael Phelps (not to mention Grant Hackett, whose lot is always to not get mentioned vis-a-vis Thorpe) in Athens in 2004. How lightly Titmus bore these hopes.

There’s the formidable opposition. This is central. By a wide consensus Katie Ledecky is the best female swimmer of all time. She’s won nearly 30 gold medals across Olympics, world championships and Pan Pacs. Titmus has been creeping up on her handspan by handspan, but the thing about champion qualities is that they assert themselves when apparently all expired. This was Ledecky’s second-fastest time ever over this distance. And Titmus beat her.

Beforehand, there had been some low-level byplay between them. Done, there were no histrionics. Titmus leaned across the lane ropes and thanked Ledecky. “I wouldn’t be here without her,” she said. “She set this incredible standard. All credit to her for the swimmer she is.”

Such grace. That’s a compulsory element in greatness, or else why would we bother with this game-playing? Asking for a friend of some other Australian sportsmen.

Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky after it was all over.Credit: Getty

There’s how dearly or otherwise we hold the sport to our hearts. Let’s face it, swimming is a so-so spectator sport. But if you were to draw our national psyche for a therapist, it would probably have goggles and a tight-fitting cap. A gold at table tennis just wouldn’t be the same.

Dawn Fraser and her three successive 100 metres golds, 15-year-old Shane Gould and her three gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games, all in world record times, Kieren Perkins in Atlanta in 1996, Thorpe, those relay teams; these are the icons. Swimmers glow with good health in a way most of us don’t, but would like to. We do glow in our pride.

Cathy Freeman’s unforgettable opening ceremony moment in Sydney in 2000/Credit: AP

There’s the way it was won. Twice, Titmus looked beaten, half-way through the race, and half-way down the last lap. But she kept coming. You did not need to be the type who knows your splits off by heart to see that here was courage and class. “God she can race,” exclaimed her mother, Robyn, as if in new awe of her own daughter. Kids sometimes do that to parents.

We do love it this way. There was Bill Roycroft in Rome in 1960, discharging himself from hospital with broken bones to ride to gold in the equestrian three-day event. Olympic historian Harry Gordon said it was the bravest thing he ever saw.

There was Perkins in Atlanta, out of form, out of sorts, out in lane eight, swimming to unfathomable 1500 metres gold. There was the men’s 4x100 relay team in Sydney and the women in Athens four years later, both beating the invincible Americans. It’s a bit chauvinistic, but we do especially like it that way.

Also in Athens, there was Jamie Dwyer’s golden goal as the Kookaburras, our 48-year Olympic bridesmaids, made it to the altar at last. Then there’s Steven Bradbury ... but let’s not go there, or we’ll never get out of here.

Much as we like to play up to an overblown underdog trope, we can handle virtuosity. Herb Elliott won the 1500 metres on the track at the Rome Games in a time that would have won gold at seven of the next nine Olympics. He retired soon afterwards, forever unbeaten at the distance. God, he could run.

Then there are intangibles. Sometimes a win comes with an image you just know will be indelible. Think Cathy Freeman with the flame in Sydney at one end of the scale, and at the other hurdler Sally Pearson lying flat on her back on the London track in 2012 squealing in disbelief. Titmus’ win forever will conjure up an image of coach Dean Boxall and his dervish’s dance, already a viral phenomenon. Coronavirus be damned.

Kieren Perkins triumphs in Atlanta in 1996.Credit: Tim Clayton.

Sometimes, context and circumstances elevate victory to a plane far above its own intrinsic worthiness. Betty Cuthbert’s three sprint gold medals in Melbourne in 1956 set the seal on Australia’s first Olympics. Though no longer with us, the original golden girl will be dashing open-mouthed to the finish line forever. Freeman in Sydney did it all: launched the Games, then completed them.

Titmus’ triumph has a different but no less significant overlay. These have been a grim two years. Even now, it is not entirely clear that these Games should be proceeding at all. But for four minutes, Titmus was like Samantha in the old sitcom Bewitched, holding us all in a trance in which only she could move and rearrange the world while we forgot about everything and it’s not too trite to say we needed that.

Titmus had me poised for a long time over the 10-out-of-10 card. In the end, that’s Freeman’s. But Titmus ought to start thinking about what she will wear for the portrait painting.

12 great Australian Olympic moments

In chronological order

Betty Cuthbert, Athletics, 100m , Melbourne 1956The 18-year-old became Australia’s “Golden Girl” of the track

Herb Elliott, Athletics, 1500m, Rome 1960Never beaten over a mile, Elliott won the gold in world record time

Bill Roycroft, Equestrian, Rome 1960Rose from his hospital bed to lead team to gold

Dawn Fraser, Swimming, 100m freestyle, Tokyo 1964Became the first swimmer to win the same event at three consecutive Games

Shane Gould, Swimming, 100m freestyle, Munich 1972Won three gold as a 15-year-old, all in world record time

Kieren Perkins, Swimming, 1500m freestyle, Atlanta 1996Swam from lane eight and led from start to finish to defend his title

Australia, Swimming, men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay, Sydney 2000Ian Thorpe mowed down Gary Hall Jnr in the last leg after the American said he would “smash them like guitars”.

Cathy Freeman, Athletics, 400m, Sydney 2000Having ignited the flame, Freeman overcame extraordinary pressure as home favourite and a symbol of reconciliation.

Australia, Swimming, women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay, Athens 2004Alice Mills, Libby Lenton, Petria Thomas and Jodie Henry beat the Americans in world record time to begin a legacy in the event

Kookaburras, Hockey, Athens 2004Discarded tag of Olympic chokers with a Jamie Dwyer golden goal

Sally Pearson, Athletics, 100m hurdles, London 2012Gold medal reaction after Pearson pipped American rival Dawn Harper despite a lunge for the line

Ariarne Titmus, Swimming, 400m freestyle, Tokyo 2021Titmus edges great rival Katie Ledecky in the final lap of an epic race 

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