Ariarne Titmus

Ariarne Titmus emerged as one of the real stars of the Tokyo Olympics when she captured the 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle golds, defeating an elite field that included American superstar Katie Ledecky.

She had earlier put Ledecky on notice with her come-from-behind win over her at the Gwangju world championships in South Korea in 2019 where she inflicted the first international 400m defeat ever on the US legend. Ariane also collected a silver (in the 800m freestyle) and bronze (in the 4x200m freestyle relay) to complete a hugely successful debut Olympics.

Although she decided to bypass the world titles in Budapest in 2022, she followed up her Olympic success by claiming four golds at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games later that year.

A ferocious, hard-working competitor, she continues to train with her exuberant coach out of the St Peters squad. She currently has won 24 medals in international competition. And she has only just begun.

The Tasmanian native first stamped her mark on the world swimming stage at the 2017 World Championships, where she won a bronze medal as part of the Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team. She then went on to finish fourth in the 400m freestyle event.

A year later, in front of a home crowd at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Ariarne was dominant; winning three gold medals in the Women’s 400m freestyle, the 800m freestyle and the 4x200m freestyle relay, as well as silver in the 200m freestyle.

A fruitful Commonwealth Games campaign headlined a strong calendar year for Ariarne, who also earned gold twice at the 2018 World Short Course Championships and once at the Pan Pacific Championships.

At the 2019 World Championships, Ariarne took top honours in the Women’s 400m freestyle and the 4x200m freestyle relay, whilst also earning silver and bronze in the 200m freestyle and 800m freestyle, respectively.

Ariarne confirmed she was one to watch in Tokyo at the Australian Olympic trials held in Adelaide, where she swam a time of 1:53.09 in the 200m freestyle and 3:56.09 in the 400m freestyle, making her the second faster women ever to swim both events.

Her times also set new Commonwealth records in both the 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle, and narrowly missed the world record by just 0.11 seconds in the 200m.

In Birmingham, Ariarne became just the second swimmer to claim the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle treble at the 2022 Commonwealth Games – all in Games records. The feat had previously only been achieved by Australian Karen Moras in Edinburgh in 1970.

At the 2022 Australian Swimming Championships, Ariarne set a new 400m freestyle world record with a time of 3:56:40, breaking Ledecky's former mark set at Rio 2016 by +0.6s.

At the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Ariarne was controlled in the 400m freestyle prelims to qualify for the final in lane five. In the final, she led after the first lap and dominated the rest of the race, winning in 3:55.38 to beat Ledecky and claim the world record back from Canada’s Summer McIntosh.

In the 200m freestyle final she led for much of the race but had to settle for silver after being overtaken in the final lap by teammate Mollie O’Callaghan, who won in a new world record of 1:52.85.

Ariarne anchored the Australian 4x200m freestyle relay team, who won gold in a world record time. And in the 800m free, she equalled her best time with 8:13.59, to finished third behind gold-medal winner Ledecky.

Just two months after Fukuoka, Ariarne revealed she had undergone surgery to remove two benign tumours on her right ovary.

After almost 10 weeks recuperating, she made her return to swimming at the Queensland State Championships.

However, Ariarne elected to bypass the 2024 World Championships in Doha as she prepares for the Paris Olympics.

The 400m final at Fukuoka, in which Ariarne left both Ledecky and McIntosh in her wake, was described as the “race of the century.” Ariarne’s victory secured her place as the undisputed champion of women’s middle-distance swimming.

It also sets the scene for what will no doubt be the race to watch at the Paris Games.

As the build-up towards Paris intensified, Ariarne won the 400m and 800m freestyle titles and finished second in the 200m at the 2024 Australian championships on the Gold Coast. 

Then, at the Australian Olympic trials in Brisbane, Ariarne and Mollie O’Callaghan went head-to-head in a thrilling finish to the 200m freestyle final, with Ariarne winning in a world record time of 1:52.23.

Earlier she had booked her ticket to Paris with victory in the 400m freestyle and later she cruised to victory in the women's 800m freestyle.