{"id":494968,"date":"2022-01-06T04:00:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=494968"},"modified":"2022-01-05T15:31:21","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T22:31:21","slug":"swimming-world-january-2022-presents-ariarne-titmus-swimming-toward-greatness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/swimming-world-january-2022-presents-ariarne-titmus-swimming-toward-greatness\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming World January 2022 Presents – Ariarne Titmus: Swimming Toward Greatness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest issue of Swimming World Magazine<\/em><\/span>
\nis now available for download in the<\/span> Swimming World Vault<\/span><\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n

Non-Subscribers Can Download This Issue Here<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ariarne Titmus: Swimming Toward Greatness<\/span><\/h1>\n

By David Rieder<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Ariarne Titmus first beat Katie Ledecky, history\u2019s 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s Ariarne Titmus, and the teenager from Launceston, Tasmania, went out from the start and made the accomplished American chase her.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

WHEN IT ALL SEEMED POSSIBLE<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe previous race between the two\u2014at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships\u2014had instilled in Titmus the belief that beating Ledecky might eventually be possible by the time the 2020 Olympics rolled around.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Pan Pacs, when I broke 4:00, when I could kind of see Katie\u2019s 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,\u201d Titmus said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

After Titmus won that gold medal, the only person who was not in awe was her coach, Dean Boxall. Titmus called Boxall \u201cthe most flamboyant, passionate, loud, crazy person who just loves his job and puts 100% into it,\u201d and she said that their relationship functions so well because they are genuinely close outside of their coach-athlete relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Titmus said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Titmus and Boxall have a system where they describe her performances by one of two words: \u201cOutstanding\u201d or \u201cDog(poo).\u201d 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\u2014perhaps hoping to keep his athlete humble and cognizant of the journey ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I hadn\u2019t 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: \u2018Dog(poo). Dog(poo),\u2019\u201d Titmus said. \u201cI had just won at the World Championships, so this was his way of saying, \u2018This isn\u2019t it. It\u2019s next year. Don\u2019t get carried away with this.\u2019<\/p>\n

TRAINING DERAILED WITH SHOULDER INJURY<\/strong><\/span>
\nTitmus 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.<\/p>\n

However, by the end of the year, Titmus had to deal with significant shoulder pain that derailed her training for several months.<\/p>\n

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, \u201cI got out of the pool, and I couldn\u2019t open my arm,\u201d Titmus said. \u201cMy bicep had taken the whole load of my catch.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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,\u201d Titmus said. \u201cI was on the sideline when they were all doing that, which is really hard for me to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Titmus remembers her first full practice with the distance group, a set of broken 200s. \u201cI was so far off,\u201d she said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To continue reading more about Ariarne Titmus and her future plans, <\/span><\/a>
\n<\/strong>Click here to download the full January issue of Swimming World Magazine, available now!<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Swimming<\/a>[Photo Courtesy: Robert Hanashiro \/ USA Today Sports]<\/p>\n

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FEATURES<\/p>\n

012<\/span> THE TOP 5 STORIES OF 2021<\/strong><\/span>
\nby David Rieder<\/strong>
\nWhile 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\u2019s top stories centers on Tokyo, where the Olympics produced some amazing performances and historic results.<\/p>\n

016<\/span> 2021 ATHLETES OF THE YEAR<\/strong><\/span>
\nby Dan D\u2019Addona and Matthew De George<\/strong><\/p>\n