Eight-time Olympic medalist and Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus chatted about her respected career in sports and her motivations.
Track and field legend Wilma Rudolph once said: “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” Ariarne Titmus is a woman that embodies this wise quote.
Throughout her career in competitive swimming, Titmus is a three-time world record holder, a four-time Olympic champion, and a six-time world champion.
Titmus is coached by Dean Boxall, and she is affectionately known as both “Arnie” and “The Terminator.”
Paris 2024 Olympic Games
At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Titmus won a total of four Olympic medals, two of which were gold (in the women’s 400 meter freestyle race and the women’s 4 × 200 meter freestyle relay as part of Team Australia).
“Paris feels so long ago now, but it felt amazing,” she said. “It felt different than Tokyo, but it was still great.”
Daily motivations
On her daily motivations, Titmus said, “At the core, swimming is such a tough sport that I just love the water, and I love swimming. I think if you don’t have that passion for the sport, then it’s too hard.”
“So, I really enjoy swimming and I’m a competitive person, and I want to get the best out of myself, and you can see that in training every day, and you can see that in racing,” she elaborated.
“I just love pushing myself every day and being with my squad and my coach; swimming is fun,” she added.
The digital age
On being a part of the digital age, Titmus said, “I think it’s amazing for the sport, especially an Olympic sport. Other than the Olympic Games, it’s sometimes really hard to get exposure in those three years around the Olympic Games, and you lose opportunities for more fans to jump onboard. You get those bandwagon swimming fans every four years.”
“I think the digital age gives more people an opportunity to see that we are doing things in the other three years (other than the Olympic Games),” she said.
“Hopefully, it can help grow the sport. In Australia, we are just swimming nuts here, and it’s just hard to comprehend that in the three years around the Olympic Games, nobody really follows it,” she noted.
“I hope that with the opportunity to jump on and watch every major meet, we can get more fans following swimming, all year round,” she added.
Advice for young and emerging swimmers
For young and aspiring swimmers, Titmus said, “I would tell them that enjoy it as much as you can, while you can, honestly. As soon as you have one serious meet or as soon as you have one great swim, people will notice you and you are on their radar, then you can never go back.”
“Then, there will be pressure to perform from that point forward,” she acknowledged. “I would say ‘be fearless when you race,’ ‘take the pressure off yourself’ and ‘just enjoy it while you can’.”
“When you are younger, and if you have goals and ambitions to be the best swimmer in the world, just believe in that and work as hard as you can. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it,” she said.
“I think your mind is the most powerful part of your body,” she underscored. “It’s crazy what you can do when you set your mind to something.”
“Young swimmers should have big dreams and goals just like I did and go for it! What’s the worst that could happen. That’s the advice I would give,” the Aussie freestyle queen added.
Titmus on the ‘healthy’ rivalry between her and Katie Ledecky
Titmus spoke about the “healthy” rivalry between her and American swimmer Katie Ledecky (who is a 14-time Olympic medalist in her own right, nine of which are gold).
“I would not have become the athlete that I am without Katie; I will say this until the day that I die. Katie set this incredible standard for middle-distance swimming on the women’s side of things,” Titmus admitted.
“I tried to follow her, and I was never afraid to try and take it to her, and I think that’s a big thing,” Titmus said. “A lot of athletes are afraid to try and push someone who has been untouchable for so many years. It was never about beating Katie, it was about trying to make myself better, and then, she happened to be the benchmark,” she explained.
“Dean and I just tried to race the way that she raced, and then I kind of turned it into my own thing once I was that kind of rival with her. Then, I changed my race plan too, and now other women are trying to race the way that I race,” she added.
Titmus continued, “I feel that if it wasn’t for Katie, I wouldn’t have had that standard to chase but I think I proved to people that you can chase after a champion, and beat them, and now, Summer McIntosh is coming through, and she was never afraid to take it to myself or Katie, and there’s a few other younger swimmers in other events.
“Now, we are all the same, and nobody is untouchable. I hope that I’ve shown that to younger swimmers coming through,” she noted.
“The one thing that I love about my rivalry with Katie is that outside of swimming, I believe she is a beautiful person, and I hope she thinks the same with me. I would never look at her as a competitor beyond the pool, but we always just let the swimming do the talking,” she elaborated.
“Whenever we race, it’s a tough race and it’s a high-quality race, and that’s what people want to watch. There has never been any rivalry beyond the pool, and I just find that the healthiest rivalry, and I feel so grateful to be a part of that,” she added.
Career-defining moments
On her career-defining moments, Titmus remarked, “I think when I beat Katie in 2019 at the World Championships in Gwangju. I didn’t think I was going to beat her that year, I thought it was still a little bit early but I had the chance to pounce and I took it.”
“I was the first woman to beat her in the 400 meter race internationally, and in hindsight, I didn’t enjoy the victory as I should have because it was the first time that I had become world champion. I had knocked off essentially the greatest female swimmer we had ever seen and was the first woman to do so,” she elaborated.
“At the time, I had a discussion with Dean and we had to keep a lid on it,” she said. “Dean didn’t want me to become complacent, and think it was all done and dusted and that it was going to be easy to beat her in Tokyo.”
“I think the way we handled the victory was very definitive in why I ended up winning in Tokyo even though it was a year later. It was just not letting the win get to my head,” she acknowledged.
“I used that victory as a confidence boost for sure, but I also used it as a hunger and a drive rather than looking it as a job done type of thing. That is something that I have used my entire career,” she explained.
“I’ve used my wins as s motivation to win again, again, and again,” she added.
Titmus on the mental preparation for the sport with the help of her coach
Titmus spoke about the mental preparation for the sport with the help of her coach. “I think Dean and I have the closest relationship that you can have for a coach and athlete,” she admitted.
“I’ve never spoken to a sports psychologist in my life; I would say that Dean is my sports psychologist,” she said. “We just totally click and have incredible trust with each other as coach and athlete, and as friends. I think our work ethics totally align.”
Titmus continued, “When we were making race plans and goals for the Paris Olympics — just like any Champion athlete makes years out — Dean would make sure that I remembered the goals I set every single day, so there was not one opportunity to let me falter physically or mentally.”
Titmus proclaims Dean Boxall as ‘the best swimming coach in the world’
“Dean just totally knows how to tap into my personality and what I need every day to get the best out of myself,” she said. “Dean coaches every athlete very differently but the way we work together is just the perfect partnership.”
“More than anything, he prepares me to race and physically be as well prepared as possible,” she said.
“I believe Dean is ‘the best swimming coach in the world.’ He had this incredible ability to tap into your killer mindset and I think he unleashed that in me. We had that attitude going into every race,” she elaborated.
“I just feel very confident having Dean in my corner going into every race because he has your back 100 percent. I love him to bits,” she added.
Titmus on racing Mollie O’Callaghan
On racing eight-time Olympic medalist Mollie O’Callaghan, Titmus said, “I find it amazing that we have the two best women’s 200 meter freestylers ever training in the same pool every single day.”
“Don’t get me wrong; it’s tough racing any competitor. Then, sometimes, it is tougher knowing that you see your competitor train every day,” she noted.
“At the end of the day, I try to be a positive person, so to have Australia be 1-2 is great, so you have to look at it as a positive,” she said.
“Plus, our coach, Dean, is trying to help us both win so that’s an unusual situation because you probably never would have predicted to have the two best women in the world in the same event in your program at the same time. I think he handles it the best way that he can. I try to look at it as a good thing,” she explained.
Titmus opens up about her health scare prior to the Paris Olympics
Titmus is a firm believer that adversity makes us stronger, and she proved that after overcoming a health scare.
Titmus underwent unexpected ovarian tumor surgery less than a year before the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. “That was probably the scariest moment of my life,” she recalled.
“It was October of 2023, when I was in the grind phase. While this health issue happened at the worst possible timing, at the end of the day, swimming is just swimming, and there is so much more to life than just swimming. That put a lot of things into perspective for me,” she said.
“If anything, once I got through the recovery, it put me in two different mindsets that helped me… On one hand, I am only young, and things can be taken away from you in an instant, where you can get sick and bad things happen. Just go for it! You’ve been given this gift to race for an Olympic gold medal next year, and just absolutely go nuts and go for it,” she elaborated.
“My mindset changed for training, and I was just grateful to be in the position that I was in, to be able to fight for medals,” she said.
Titmus: ‘There is so much more to life than sports’
“This also taught me that there is so much more to life than sports,” she admitted. “This made me round out my personality a little bit more, and enjoy other aspects of my life as well a little bit more while going into the Olympic Games.”
Titmus continued, “This made me put a lot of things into perspective and it made me more grateful to be in the position that I was in with what I had been through. I feel so proud to have performed the way that I did at the Olympic Games because I was still having abdominal pain training up until February.”
“I am really proud of my efforts, especially to have the turnaround that I had. The average woman would have not been on a timeline if they had an operation like that because they are not trying to fight for Olympic medals. So, I was against the clock, but it was all good in the end,” she elaborated.
Favorite mottos to live by
On her favorite mottos to live by, she revealed, “Be the best you can be.”
“I remember when I met Stephanie Rice for the first time, and I was maybe 10 years old, and she signed a T-shirt for me, and she wrote ‘be the best that you can be’ and I now write that on things when I sign things,” she acknowledged.
Titmus continued, “Even though that motto is so simple, it’s the best way to live by because you don’t want to compare yourself to other people, and you know what you are capable of, and you know your inner strength. Being the best version of yourself is the most important thing in the world.”
“The one thing that Dean always tells me is that ‘your best version is the world’s best version’ so you just have to be your best, and you’re the world’s best. That’s the best way to live by,” she admitted.
“I am not here to beat anyone else; they are here to beat me, and I think that’s the best way to look at things, so focus on yourself and try to be the best version that you can be,” she added.
Future plans
Regarding her future plans, she shared, “In the short-term, coming back from the Olympics in Paris, I was just here, there and everywhere. In Australia, we really gravitate towards Olympic athletes that do well. I’ve had a lot of business and work come my way, which I’ve really enjoyed.”
“I did plan that I wanted an extended break from swimming after the Olympic Games, so I needed a bit of time for myself and my family, so for the next six months, it is about being present in my life with the people in my life, enjoying it, and getting the most out of my break before going back,” she elaborated.
“My plan would be to get back in the pool in July, and start building up for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles,” she added.
Favorite stroke in swimming
Titmus listed the “freestyle” as her personal favorite stroke in swimming, and that comes as no surprise.
“I can’t do anything else,” she jokingly laughed. “When I was little, I started out as a medley swimmer and as a breaststroker, and the first records I would break regionally, and state records were breaststroke records.”
Titmus continued, “Then, at 12 years old, I had a coach change, and he was an old-school distance freestyle coach, and all I wanted to do was to keep up and make the cycles in training so the only way to do that was to do freestyle the whole time. So, I just turned into this distance freestyler.
“I won my first medals at nationals when I was 13 years old in the 200 meters, 400 meters, and 800 meter races. That was when I realized that maybe freestyle was my thing,” she said.
“My favorite event would be the 400 meters; that’s my baby,” she exclaimed. “I feel that race is just the perfect distance for my stroke.”
Stage of her life
On the title of the current chapter of her life, Titmus said, “Exploring and enjoying life.”
“This is a bit of a transition phase for me,” she noted. “I am just enjoying life and seeing what the world has to offer.”
“I feel like I am growing as a person so much and I am exploring life beyond swimming at the moment, which I am really enjoying,” she said.
Superpower of choice
If Titmus were to have any superpower, it would be “to fly” or “to teleport.”
“I am actually scared of flying on planes, and I’ve done so many flights lately. It would be great to just fly or teleport,” he said.
Success
On her definition of the word success, Titmus said, “Success means contentment, potential, and going to try to reach your limits.”
“Success is feeling content in what you’ve achieved and knowing that you did everything you could to achieve that. At the moment, I am in my happy phase and feeling content,” she added.
Message for her fans
For her fans and supporters, Titmus said, “It takes a lot of people. People look at swimming as an individual sport but it isn’t. My family sacrificed so much for me for my swimming career. There are so many people in my life that contribute.”
“Obviously, Dean is a big part of this and a heavy contributor,” she said. “We have a staff of 10 at the pool that we work with every day, and the most amazing thing is that their job is to help us chase our dreams, and I find that incredible. I really appreciate them and they work so hard.”
“Outside of swimming, there is your management team, which helps you build your brand beyond swimming,” she said.
“I am someone that wants to make a mark on the world beyond my athletic performance. It is so important not to be defined by your sport and not live through your success for the rest of your life. I want to set myself up with a career beyond swimming,” she acknowledged.
“The most special moment is standing on the podium and hearing your national anthem, and you feel the most sense of pride to represent your country. It’s not the medal that you are proud of; it’s the journey and the person you’ve become to achieve that medal,” Titmus concluded.
Rapid Fire Questions
Titmus also took some time to answer some “Rapid Fire” questions.
Waffles or pancakes? Pancakes
Flying or driving? Driving
City living or country living? Country living even though I’m enjoying the city now.
Summer or winter? Summer
Library or museum? Museum
Bath or shower? Shower
Pepsi or Coke? Coke
Texting or calling? Calling
Half-full or half-empty? Half-full
Curly fries or normal fries? Normal fries; I don’t think I’ve ever had curly fries.
Skydiving or scuba diving? Scuba diving
Indoor pool or outdoor pool? Outdoor pool
Tea or coffee? Coffee, for sure
Rain or snow? Snow
Singing or dancing? Dancing
Burgers or tacos? Burgers
Long course or short course? Long course, definitely
Money or fame? Money, but I don’t think either will buy you happiness.
To learn more about Ariarne Titmus, follow her on Instagram.
