Paris 2024: Ariarne Titmus is ready for a ‘big break’ from the pool but she’s not saying goodbye just yet
With another fantastic Olympic campaign under her belt, champion swimmer Ariarne Titmus is ready to take a break from the pool but it’s not goodbye just yet with LA on her mind.
Now that she has scaled her Everest not just once, but twice, Ariarne Titmus must search for the motivation to do it all over again for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
One thing is certain, the Olympics is no longer the only thing that matters in her life.
Titmus completed an emotional Paris Olympic campaign with silver in the 800m freestyle, a brave swim where she threw everything she had at the legendary Katie Ledecky to finish just over one second behind the first woman in Olympic history to win the same event four times in a row.
For Titmus it capped a remarkable second Games where she won two gold and two silver medals, adding to the two gold and two bronze medals she won in Tokyo.
Every Olympic campaign is different, but this one had its challenges.
The burden of expectation as a defending champion was a suffocating pressure Titmus carried with complete professionalism.
But the surgery she had last October to remove benign tumours on her ovary opened her eyes to life that exists beyond the black line of the pool.
“You forget that there’s a real world out there and you sometimes think that swimming is everything, but it’s not,” Titmus said.
“I’ve been through things in the past 12 months that have made me realise that.
“The operation I had in October made me realise how important life is. The Olympics and swimming isn’t everything and that probably actually motivated me more to just seize the moment (here in Paris) and enjoy what a privilege it is to represent our country and race here and just soak it all up.”
She will now take a “big, big break” from swimming.
But it will only be a break, not a goodbye.
“You know, I enjoy it. I enjoy training more than anything. I love swimming and that’s why I swim and, and these moments are bonuses really and I never thought that I’d be sitting here,” Titmus said.
“Doing this in a sport that I love, really that’s the motivator for me. I love swimming. And that’s what will continue to motivate me and get me back in the pool.
“I need a big break away and reset. Fill that hunger level back up and set some new goals but I love swimming and that’s the only reason why I swim. And it’s very special to do it at the Olympic Games.”
Finding that next level of motivation will be the challenge for Titmus. As she sat alongside Ledecky at a press conference in Paris, hearing US journalists marvel at her rival’s list of Olympic achievements, you could sense they were inadvertently filling her motivation cup without knowing it.
Ledecky joked that if she had her way she’d be back in training on September 1, such is her thirst for training and the camaraderie of being with her teammates.
The old Titmus would’ve taken that as motivation to return to training on August 31, just to get that head start on her competition.
But Titmus won’t rush back to the pool. The LA Games are four years away and she has time to stop and smell the roses after what’s been an almost non-stop seven-year process to get to the top.
“I think once you become Olympic champion, you know what it takes and it’s one thing to get to the top and it’s another thing to stay there and you have to find new ways to motivate yourself and new goals,” she said.
“And I think for me, it’s about getting the best out of myself. I really wanted to come to these Olympics and get every little skerrick out of myself and really try and swim the way that I think I could this week.
“In Australia we put swimming on such a pedestal and it’s a great thing, pressure is a privilege, but it’s very tough to have that burden sometimes and I feel like I utilised it the best that I can but sometimes it gets a lot.”
More Coverage
Lions team bus delivers Ian Healy painful Gabba reality check
With the 2032 Brisbane Olympics approaching rapidly, Australian cricket great Ian Healy was left with a wry smile as the Brisbane Lions rolled into the AFL grand final at the MCG.
Gabba for the Olympics? Crisafulli is open to it
Queensland election frontrunner David Crisafulli has left the door open to reviving plans to overhaul the Gabba as Brisbane’s marquee Olympic stadium.