‘Like swimming downhill’: Inside the race where Titmus landed her killer blow

Paris: Ariarne Titmus still has no idea why she burst into tears moments before her epic 400m freestyle victory at last year’s world swimming championships in Japan.

If only Titmus knew that everything would be OK after eight unforgettable laps in Fukuoka where the Australian landed her pre-Olympics killer blow over the greatest female swimmer of all time – Katie Ledecky – and Canadian world record-holder Summer McIntosh.

The Tasmanian was slumped in a chair in an Australian team room, moments before her coach Dean Boxall took her out for a warm-up swim on the opening night of competition.

Doubt had crept into the mind of the reigning Olympic champion ahead of what would be a prelude to next week’s ‘Race of the Century’ on the opening night in the pool in Paris.

Had Titmus done the work? Was her focus completely there? Was McIntosh the real deal?

The Canadian team certainly thought they had unearthed a bona fide superstar and Boxall made sure Titmus knew all about it.

Ariarne Titmus is hunting more gold in the 400m freestyle at the Paris Olympics. Credit: Jamila Toderas

He told Titmus that he’d overheard Canadian officials claiming McIntosh was a near certainty for gold and would probably lower the world record again.

It was exactly what Titmus needed to hear. She is at her lethal best when she has a point to prove.

Titmus says she rarely reads news articles about herself. Before the final, however, she decided to have a scroll on social media. She stumbled upon an American swimming website that had pencilled her in for third place in her pet 400m event, behind McIntosh and Ledecky.

As the world watched on, the “Terminator” clicked into gear, ready for a dogfight.

“I had so much pent-up nervous energy,” Titmus tells this masthead. “I feel like I’m someone who eats pressure for breakfast. I enjoy pressure and I feel like I can turn it into something else inside of me.”

The winner of the race would not only net $US20,000 ($30,000), but inflict a major psychological blow before the Olympics in Paris.

It was the perfect race as Titmus, in lane five, went out hard and blew the field away to win in world record time. In a decorated career, this was her finest moment and the most emphatic statement possible before another Olympics 12 months later.

“I have watched that race probably 20 times,” Titmus says. “I’ve never felt so good in the first 200 of a race, going so fast in my life. I felt like I was swimming downhill.

“I remember turning at the 200-metre mark [0.53 seconds clear of McIntosh in second place] thinking, ‘Well they’re behind, so they’re going to bring the legs in. They’re coming for me.’ On the sixth lap I was like, ‘Where are they? What’s going on?’

“I think without even saying it, there was this flow-on effect for the week. You live off the high.”

Titmus touched the wall in three minutes, 55.38 seconds. It was a time 0.7s quicker than McIntosh’s world record and three seconds clear of Ledecky in second place.

The magnitude of what Titmus achieved was amplified given her disjointed preparation, where socialising, at times, took priority over swimming. That didn’t impress Boxall.

“Dean sees it more than me and this is the thing we were butting heads about,” Titmus says. “I suddenly realised, ‘shit, I’m racing for a world championship gold medal and there are a lot of eyes on me’. I didn’t want to go there and race underdone.

Ariarne Titmus receives a cheque for $US20,000 for breaking the women’s 400m freestyle world record.Credit: AP

“Swimming has been my identity for a long period. In the lead-up to Tokyo, I was a bit of a nutjob. I wanted to win so bad. Swimming was all I had and wanted.

“After Tokyo, it’s crazy that you achieve your lifelong dream in an instant and you have to reassess and figure out what’s next. I had to figure out who I was as a person outside of swimming. I made more time in my life for friends and family. I felt like I was stuck enjoying life outside of swimming too much. I felt like there was this glass roof over me and I was trying to break out to find who I was as that swimmer again.

“He could see that I was still stuck in my personal life. I was not as focused as I should have been on swimming. I felt like when I went to trials and I didn’t swim exactly the way I wanted to it was like that kick up the bum I needed.”

At the Australian trials in Melbourne last year, Titmus delivered a subtle sledge to McIntosh that former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh – a master of “mental disintegration” – would be proud of.

“I feel like Summer hasn’t really had that experience yet racing on the international stage with the pressure,” Titmus said at the time. “It’ll be interesting to see how she goes. I like going in with the underdog narrative.”

For McIntosh to finish outside the medals at the world championships – in fourth place – was a major blow for an athlete with the expectations of a nation weighing heavily on her. It has been 48 years since Canada won an Olympic medal in the women’s 400m freestyle.

Although she managed to win gold in the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley at the world championships, McIntosh will never forget the loss to Titmus that evening in Fukuoka. She says she is trying to move past it but concedes it did not go to plan.

“I learned a lot from that,” McIntosh said. “Not every race is going to be a 10 out of 10. That definitely wasn’t a 10 out of 10 race for me. It’s in the past now.

Ariarne Titmus with her 400m freestyle gold medal at the world championships alongside Katie Ledecky and Erika Fairweather.Credit: Getty Images

“I’ve always learned that trying not to get too high or too low on emotion is super important.”

Titmus and McIntosh won’t say a bad word about each other because there is mutual respect but don’t be fooled. The competitive streak is real.

“She’d done her best times when she was at a trials with no one really around,” Titmus said. “I knew for her, worlds would be a different experience. She’s going to take a lot of learnings from the meet into Paris. She’s going to come into the Olympics learning from this and I think it’s going to be more of an even keel. Even though I went out and blew them away, that is going to be extra motivation for them.”

It is every swimmer’s dream to fly under the radar heading into an Olympics. It’s an impossibility given what Titmus produced in Fukuoka, and she is comfortable with that.

She was asked this week whether she’d been thinking much about Ledecky, the swimmer she and Boxall had studied intently for years.

“No, not really,” Titmus replied, before telling journalists she’d never had a better preparation for a swimming competition.

There will be one last big push from Titmus to do her country proud, then a break. Perhaps for good?

“I’ve got a few big jobs ahead of me if I want to defend my titles in the two events,” she said. “I know I’m going to have a big break after the Olympics. I need that for me mentally and physically but for now, it’s go time.”

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