Swimming World January 2022 Presents – Ariarne Titmus: Swimming Toward Greatness

Swimming World January 2022 - Ariarne Titmus - Swimming Toward Greatness

PICTURED ABOVE: Swimming at her ﬁrst Olympic Games this past summer in Tokyo, Ariarne Titmus captured two gold medals (200 and 400 freestyles), a silver (800 free) and a bronze (800 free relay) [Robert Hanashiro/USA Today Sports]

The latest issue of Swimming World Magazine
is now available for download in the Swimming World Vault!

Non-Subscribers Can Download This Issue Here

Ariarne Titmus: Swimming Toward Greatness

By David Rieder

Australia’s Ariarne Titmus first beat Katie Ledecky, history’s greatest female distance swimmer, at the 2019 World Championships. She repeated the feat this past summer at the Tokyo Olympics, and now has her sights set on achieving even more challenging goals.

The scene was stunning, even surreal. Katie Ledecky, the consensus greatest distance swimmer in history and a woman undefeated in events 400 meters and longer for seven years, had been beaten. On the first night of the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Ledecky was aiming for her fourth straight world title in the 400 freestyle after three previous wins of at least 2.5 seconds. But next to Ledecky in the final was Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, and the teenager from Launceston, Tasmania, went out from the start and made the accomplished American chase her.

Ledecky, of course, was not going down easily, and she was only a tenth behind Titmus at the halfway point before moving into the lead on the fifth length of the race. Then, Ledecky looked to be pulling away, building a lead of more than 6-tenths at the final turn. But Titmus had one more gear waiting for the last 50. She blitzed past Ledecky with a 29.51 split, nearly two seconds ahead of the American, and Titmus was the world champion. Her time of 3:58.76 beat Ledecky by more than a second and made her the second-fastest woman in history.

WHEN IT ALL SEEMED POSSIBLE
The previous race between the two—at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships—had instilled in Titmus the belief that beating Ledecky might eventually be possible by the time the 2020 Olympics rolled around.

“At Pan Pacs, when I broke 4:00, when I could kind of see Katie’s feet the whole time, it kind of gave me this feeling that if I put in the work, I might be able to actually be right there,” Titmus said.

Indeed, Titmus had been pointing toward becoming the true rival Ledecky had lacked in the 400, but none could have imagined her actually pulling off the upset, especially in the fashion of a dominating last 50.

After Titmus won that gold medal, the only person who was not in awe was her coach, Dean Boxall. Titmus called Boxall “the most flamboyant, passionate, loud, crazy person who just loves his job and puts 100% into it,” and she said that their relationship functions so well because they are genuinely close outside of their coach-athlete relationship.

“I think that foundation of a relationship where we can actually chat about other things outside of swimming and that trust that we have for each other is great for when it becomes Coach Dean and Athlete Ariarne,” Titmus said. “I think the reason it works so well is that he completely trusts I will execute the set that he creates, and I completely trust that what he is creating is the best in the world to make me be the best.”

Titmus and Boxall have a system where they describe her performances by one of two words: “Outstanding” or “Dog(poo).” During her press conference after her remarkable accomplishment that night in Gwangju, Boxall entered the room, stood in the back next to a row of cameramen and made his opinion known—perhaps hoping to keep his athlete humble and cognizant of the journey ahead.

“Because I hadn’t done the race like we had planned and there were things that were off, he sat at the back of the room and just mimed at me while I was doing the interviews: ‘Dog(poo). Dog(poo),’” Titmus said. “I had just won at the World Championships, so this was his way of saying, ‘This isn’t it. It’s next year. Don’t get carried away with this.’

TRAINING DERAILED WITH SHOULDER INJURY
Titmus and Ledecky would not face off again for two years, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Olympics to be delayed a year. The entire world faced adversity during this time, and Titmus was actually in an advantageous situation, as she found a backyard pool where she could swim after just two weeks out of the water.

However, by the end of the year, Titmus had to deal with significant shoulder pain that derailed her training for several months.

At the Queensland Championships in December, Titmus remembers feeling a sharp weakness in her shoulder while racing on a relay. She figured it was no more than a nerve issue, but after a mediocre performance in the 200 free, “I got out of the pool, and I couldn’t open my arm,” Titmus said. “My bicep had taken the whole load of my catch.”

A scan showed a partial tear of the tendon in her shoulder, and on Christmas Eve, she received a PRP injection in her shoulder and another one in her hip. She was out of the pool for two weeks, and when she returned to training in January, she could only swim one kilometer of freestyle per day. The rest of her training was kicking, single-arm swimming with the other arm and gym training.

“As a distance athlete, the beginning of the season is when you try to get your bread-and-butter, your 30 x 100 best average or your 5K main set,” Titmus said. “I was on the sideline when they were all doing that, which is really hard for me to watch.”

Titmus remembers her first full practice with the distance group, a set of broken 200s. “I was so far off,” she said. “I would usually be between 2:02 and 2:04, and I was clocking 2:11, 2:12. I was freaking out. I think from that point on, a switch flicked. I realized I literally had three months to the Olympics, and I just went nuts.”

To continue reading more about Ariarne Titmus and her future plans,
Click here to download the full January issue of Swimming World Magazine, available now!

[Photo Courtesy: Robert Hanashiro / USA Today Sports]

Get Swimming World Magazine and Swimming World Biweekly FREE When You
Become A Member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame

New! 30 Day Membership to ISHOF AND Digital Swimming World Subscription for just $10 a month!

Want more? Get a 1 Year ISHOF Family Membership With Swimming World Print AND Digital Subscription Order Now!

Non-Subscribers can click here to download this issue for only $5.94

FEATURES

012 THE TOP 5 STORIES OF 2021
by David Rieder
While the pandemic and its massive effects on the sport were the lone top story of 2020, the action in the pool returned to center-stage in 2021. Unsurprisingly, the focus of the year’s top stories centers on Tokyo, where the Olympics produced some amazing performances and historic results.

016 2021 ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
by Dan D’Addona and Matthew De George

Diving: Shi Tingmao, China & Xie Siyi, China
Artistic Swimming: Svetlana Kolesnichenko & Svetlana Romashina, Russia
Water Polo: Maddie Musselman, USA & Filip Filipovic, Serbia
Paralympic: Jessica Long, USA & Maksym Krypac, Serbia

018 THE GREATEST WORLD RECORDS IN HISTORY
by John Lohn
As the 2022 campaign gets underway, Swimming World decided to look at the greatest world records in history. No, this is not a perfect science, but the eight records featured are—plain and simple—spectacular in nature and deserve all-time recognition.

020 ISHOF FEATURE: REMEMBERING SAN FRANCISCO’S SUTRO BATHS
by Bruce Wigo
Located on the ocean side of the southerly entrance to San Francisco Bay’s Golden Gate, the Sutro Baths—built in the 1890s by Adolph Sutro and eventually destroyed in the 1960s—was the world’s largest indoor swimming facility and one of the most amazing recreational and entertainment complexes ever built.

024 2021 WORLD & AMERICAN RECORD PROGRESSION
by David Rieder

026 SWIMMING TOWARD GREATNESS
by David Rieder
Australia’s Ariarne Titmus first beat Katie Ledecky, history’s greatest female distance swimmer, at the 2019 World Championships. She repeated the feat this past summer at the Tokyo Olympics, and now has her sights set on achieving even more challenging goals.

029 NUTRITION: CHILLED TO THE BONE
by Dawn Weatherwax
Bone broth is a home remedy worth adding whether you live in a cold or warm climate.

034 MENTAL PREP: BEFORE THE BEEP WITH MAX McHUGH
by Shoshanna Rutemiller

COACHING

032 SWIMMING TECHNIQUE CONCEPTS: MAXIMIZING SWIMMING VELOCITY (Part 7)—OPTIMAL STROKE CYCLE FOR BUTTERFLY AND FREESTYLE
by Rod Havriluk
A swimmer who takes full advantage of the propulsive phase and eliminates the wasted time on the non-propulsive phase can optimize stroke cycle time. This article presents optimal times for both the propulsive and non-propulsive phases of butterfly and freestyle with corresponding predicted performance improvements.

036 COLLEGE SWIMMING POST-COVID
by Michael J. Stott
College swim coaches from around the country offer their thoughts on how COVID has affected their sport.

042 SPECIAL SETS: LETITIA SIM—DYNAMITE TALENT FROM TNT SWIMMING
by Michael J. Stott
Coach Jan Mittemeyer shares some sets he has given to Letitia Sim and her fellow senior swimmers at TNT Swimming in Daphne, Ala. Now swimming for Michigan, Sim was 2021’s No. 1-ranked recruit from Alabama and 15th nationally.

043 Q&A WITH COACH BRENT ARCKEY, SARASOTA SHARKS (Fla.)
by Michael J. Stott

044 HOW THEY TRAIN OLYMPIC SILVER MEDALIST EMMA WEYANT
by Michael J. Stott

TRAINING

031 DRYSIDE TRAINING: READY, SET, GO!
by J.R. Rosania
With the new year, it’s time to think about what lies ahead and how to begin preparation for winter and early spring racing. This month’s dryland article focuses on exercises for each stroke and some explosive and core training exercises.

JUNIOR SWIMMER

039 GOLDMINDS: THE ART OF SWIMMING
by Wayne Goldsmith
The key to fast swimming is to follow the coach’s leadership and guidance, but it’s also important to choose and make the workout special and unique just for you.

047 UP & COMERS: MAXIMUS WILLIAMSON
by Shoshanna Rutemiller

COLUMNS

008 A VOICE FOR THE SPORT

009 DID YOU KNOW: ABOUT OSCAR NORIN, CHAMPION HIGH DIVER OF THE WORLD?

041 THE OFFICIAL WORD

046 MOMS AT MEETS: BETH CURTISS

048 GUTTERTALK

049 PARTING SHOT

Swimming World is now partnered with the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
To find out more, visit us at ishof.org

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

Name*

Email*

1 Comment

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

TIAC

2 years ago

Why would Titmus have had a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injection in her hip for her shoulder problem as reported here. That makes no sense. Hope the injections were done properly and justifiably, as improper administration or PRP alteration for performance-enhancing effect would be a violation.