Teen distance prodigy Titmus not afraid to race world’s best

Brisbane schoolgirl Ariarne Titmus has a big assignment at the world titles, racing Olympic champion Katie Ledecky.

Ariarne Titmus wins the 400m freestyle at the Australian Swimming Championships in Brisbane in April.

There are perhaps a handful of ­female swimmers in the world who truly believe they can ever reach the level of triple Olympic champion Katie Ledecky.

One of them is 16-year-old Brisbane schoolgirl Ariarne Titmus, who will race Ledecky in three events at the world championships in Budapest over the next eight days.

As a teenager on her first senior international team, Titmus has a right to be nervous facing the dominant Ledecky for the first time. But here’s the thing. She’s not afraid.

That much was apparent when the teen distance prodigy annexed the national 400m and 800m freestyle titles with a Ledecky-like ­display of frontrunning in April.

The Brisbane schoolgirl’s ­efforts there have ranked her fourth in the world in both events this year, which gives her an outside chance of a medal in Budapest and a definite chance to eyeball the sport’s benchmark.

Titmus has vowed to attack her races in Budapest just as she did in Brisbane, which will put her on a collision course with Ledecky, another who doesn’t spare the horses.

“That’s worked for me so far,’’ Titmus said. “If I’m going to be as close as I can to Katie, I have to be out fast. That’s working for me, so there’s no reason to change it. I think I need to improve my back end a little bit, but I have more speed (since the national trials) and that should help.’’

Above all, Titmus, known as Arnie to her friends and “The Terminator’’ to her father Steve, is eager to measure herself against the 20-year-old American.

“She’s amazing and she’s swimming really fast and I suspect she wasn’t completely rested at their trials,’’ she said.

“It’s definitely exciting to think about racing her, it does daunt me a little bit, but it doesn’t matter if it’s her or anybody. I still go through the same processes. But I’m excited to race against the best female freestyler the world has seen and to see how she goes about it.’’

Ledecky leads the world rankings in her three Olympic gold medal events — the 200m (1:54.84), 400m (3:58.44) and 800m freestyle (8:11.50) — substantially ahead of her nearest challengers in each event.

Titmus is six seconds in arrears over the 400m (4:04.82) and 12 seconds behind in the 800m (8:23.08). It is too much to expect her to reach the American’s ­standards this year, although her youth and performance trajectory suggest she could carve another chunk off her best times.

And, one day, she believes she might be able to reach Ledecky’s standard.

“She’s a person just like me,’’ Titmus said. “I’m sure she’s got there by doing lots of hard work but there’s no reason why someone else can’t do that.

“If you put limits on yourself, you’re never going to get there. You might stop yourself from ­getting there.

“Dean (Boxall, her coach) told me after trials: ‘You can’t think that your times are fast, you have to keep thinking they aren’t good enough yet’.

“Two years ago, when I moved to Queensland (from Tasmania), I would never have thought I would be ranked fourth in the world now. Then I was thinking about winning gold at the national age championships.

“I definitely think they are times that are fast, but I think someone else can get them with the same hard work and dedication.

“I’m not sure how fast I will swim (in Budapest) but I do hope I will do better than at trials. I really just want to go in there with an open mind and put no limits on what I can do. I think in the 400 and 800, I have final opportunities, and if I swim really well there are podium opportunities.

“I just want to race the best I can.’’

One of the weapons at her disposal is that Titmus is a virtual unknown internationally. She swam at the world short-course titles last December but this is her first major long-course championship.

She doesn’t have much experience but she does seem to have ­aptitude for international racing.

Fresh off the plane two weeks ago she plunged into the French Open and set her second-fastest time, 4:05.21, to win the 400m freestyle.

That is much faster than she has ever raced before in-season, reflecting a step-up in her training quality since the trials.

“I have gained a bit more speed and strength and my technique has improved a bit but I’m still working on my dive and my turns,’’ she said.

“I wasn’t expecting to race that fast during work (at the French Open) but it’s really positive for me to race those times during the season. It gives me an idea of how fast I will race at the world titles.’’

Titmus will take on four events in Budapest, the 200m, 400m, 800m and 4x200m freestyle, which is a big program for a beginner but she relishes that challenge.

She will begin tomorrow with the 400m freestyle, her favourite event and the one in which she believes she has her best opportunity to make an impact.

But her primary goal is to learn from the best in the world.

“I’m just going to try to soak up as much as I can,’’ she said. “You are never going to get better if you don’t learn.’’

And Titmus is determined to get better.