Ariarne Titmus

Ariarne Titmus (born September 7, 2000, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia) is an Australian swimmer who burst onto the international swim scene in 2018 by winning three gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. She solidified her standing in 2019 when she beat American swimmer Katie Ledecky—considered by some to be the greatest female swimmer of all time—in the 400-meter freestyle at the FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation, now known as World Aquatics) world championships in Gwangju, South Korea; it was the first time Ledecky had lost in the event. A few years later Titmus became Olympic champion in the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle events by winning gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. She won another gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the 2024 Paris Games.

Early life

Ariarne Titmus grew up in the small town of Launceston, where she and her younger sister, Mia Titmus, had an active childhood riding horses and exploring the Tasmanian bush. Her parents had athletic backgrounds: Steve Titmus played volleyball and cricket, and Robyn Titmus athletics. Ariarne Titmus began swimming at a young age and participated in competitions with local swimming club teams. In 2015 she and her family moved to Queensland so that she could pursue better swimming opportunities.

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Career

Titmus’s first major international competition was the world championships in Budapest in 2017. Titmus swam the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle but was out of contention for a medal in both events. She also swam the 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay, and the team won the bronze medal. Less than a year later Titmus was racing at top form. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games she won three gold medals and one silver medal. The gold medals were in the 400-meter freestyle (with a time of 4 min 0.93 sec), the 800-meter freestyle (8 min 20.02 sec), and the 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay. The silver medal was in the 200-meter freestyle. She continued to race well in that year’s Pan Pacific Championships. At the short course world championships—featuring events in a 25-meter- (82-foot-) long pool—in Hangzhou, China, Titmus set a world record in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 3 min 53.92 sec.

In 2019 Titmus became a member of the Cali Condors, a professional swim team under the newly formed International Swim League (ISL). She won the 400-meter freestyle in the ISL finale in Las Vegas, contributing to the team’s third-place finish for the year. Meanwhile, that same year Titmus competed in the world championships held in Gwangju. In addition to winning gold in the 400-meter freestyle by beating defending champion Katie Ledecky with a time of 3 min 58.76 sec, Titmus won the silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle and the bronze medal in the 800-meter freestyle. She also competed in the 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay. The team’s combined time of 7 min 41.50 sec set a world record and helped it win the gold medal.

At the 2020 Olympics (postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic) Titmus won the gold medal in the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle. In the 400-meter she once again beat reigning champion Ledecky. Titmus’s time of 3 min 56.69 sec was the second fastest finish in the history of the event. In the 800-meter freestyle Titmus finished second, earning the silver medal behind Ledecky’s gold. In the 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay, Titmus helped her team win the bronze medal.

At the 2022 Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide, South Australia, Titmus swam the 400-meter freestyle in a world-record time of 3 min 56.40 sec, which beat Ledecky’s record, set in 2016, by 0.06 sec. Her new mark was shortly overtaken by Summer McIntosh, a 16-year-old from Canada, in early 2023, but several months later, at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Titmus put in a new fastest time of 3 min 55.38 sec. At Fukuoka she also earned a gold in the women’s 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay, a silver in the 200-meter freestyle, and a bronze in the 800-meter freestyle.

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Titmus continued to swim at a high level in 2024. At the Australian Olympic Trials in June she set another world record, this time in the 200-meter freestyle, with a time of 1 min 52.23 sec. That meant she would enter the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as the reigning gold medalist and world record holder in both the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle. In addition to those two distances, she also qualified to compete in the 800-meter freestyle in Paris. She expressed confidence in a 2023 interview with Harper’s Bazaar: “I know I have already achieved my childhood dreams of becoming an Olympic champion.…I have done everything I wanted to do in the sport and if I can go out there and push the limit on what I am capable of achieving, then that’s an added bonus and thrill.”

That confidence was on display at the 2024 Paris Games. In her first event, the 400-meter freestyle, Titmus easily won the gold medal. She added another gold in the 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay, and she also won silver medals in the 200-meter and 800-meter freestyle events.

Titmus was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2022 for her dedication to swimming and her accomplishments at the Olympics.