Australian four-time Olympic gold medalist Ariarne Titmus yesterday retired from competitive swimming at the age of 25, ending a stellar career that featured one of the sport’s great rivalries with American Katie Ledecky.
Titmus bowed out as one of Australia’s most decorated athletes with eight Olympic medals and four world titles.
The decision came as a shock to her nation, and the swimming world in general, as she had long planned a return to the pool to chase more Olympic glory at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
Photo: Reuters
“A tough one, a really tough one, but one that I’m really happy with,” she said of her decision in a video on social media.
“I love swimming, I’ve always loved swimming. It’s been my passion since I was a little girl, but I guess I’ve taken this time away from the pool and realized some things in my life that have always been important to me are just a little bit more important to me,” she said.
Titmus won her third individual Olympic gold medal in a 400m freestyle final dubbed “the race of the century” at the Paris Games, beating Ledecky and Canada’s Summer McIntosh to defend her title.
After Paris, she resolved to take a year off from competing and training to recharge, electing to skip the world championships in Singapore and instead cover the meet as a TV commentator.
However, the return to the pool never materialized.
Titmus had undergone surgery to remove benign tumors from her ovaries eight months before Paris, and she said the health issue had reminded her about having a life outside swimming.
“Delving more into those health challenges, I’ve had to think about what’s most important to me,” said Titmus, who retires as the 200 freestyle world record holder.
“I always intended to return,” she said. “I never thought that Paris would be my last Olympic Games, and knowing now what I know, I wish I had of maybe enjoyed that last race a little bit more.”
The face of Australian swimming at the past two Olympics, Titmus’ retirement robs the national team of an inspirational leader who did much to restore the country to superpower status in the sport after a lean decade.
Additional reporting by AFP
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Kite-surfing fabrics, car tires and shortened shoelaces helped Kenyan Sabastian Sawe and Adidas crack the two-hour marathon barrier. When Sawe on Sunday shattered one of athletics’ most elusive barriers in storming to victory at the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 30 seconds, it did not come from just physiology and grit, but from design choices drawn from far beyond the course. Sawe debuted Adidas’ lightest-ever racing shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3. “It starts with the mentality of the athlete, the coach, and the team behind the product, which is: What can we do better? What is the 1 percent
RSS