Ariarne’s first big night out in Paris is a thriller

When you’ve got such a busy Olympic program with three individual events and two relays it’s important you start on the right foot – by stepping onto the medal podium to collect gold. Editor at Large Louise Evans was pool side to capture the fun.

She’s not too keen on her accommodation but all in all Ariarne Titmus had a fabulous night out on her first evening at the Paris pool thank you very much – even though she’s “a bit buggered”.

She caught up with some old friends, won an Olympic 400m gold medal, did a lap of honour in front of a howling crowd of 38,000 adoring fans and watched her Aussie team mates win another gold medal in the 4x100m women’s relay plus there were two silvers from the blokes. And that was just on her first night.

Let’s clear up the accommodation issue first. The athletes village is not an ideal place to stay if you want to beat the best in the world according to the Australia’s freestyle Amazon. (And yet she did.)

“Living in the Olympic village makes it hard to perform, it’s not really made for high performance,” Titmus said. “It’s about who can keep it together in the mind at an Olympics and come out on top.”    

Not that she’s complaining – just telling it like it is. The world record holder doesn’t want you to think she’s getting a swollen head just because she became the first woman since Dawn Fraser to defend an individual Olympic title by winning the 400m freestyle title in Tokyo and now Paris. Plus she’s now joined the pantheon of Australian swimming champions who have won three individual Olympic golds. (She also won the 200m freestyle in Tokyo.)

“I hope no one looks at me any differently.” she said. “I am the same old droopy Tassie girl living out her dream. It just goes to show that anyone can do what they want to do if they work hard and believe in themselves. 

“Here I am from little old Launie town (Launceston) of 90,000 people and I am out here living the dream. I hope that inspires young kids back home.”

She enjoyed catching up with seven-time Olympic champion Katie Ledecky before she beat her into third place by more than three seconds. Titmus’s winning time of 3min57.49 was slower than what she swam in the Australian trials (3min55.44) but it was more than enough to crown her big night out. 

“With Katie I have a pretty good relationship outside of the water,” she said. “I don’t see my rivalry with her in anything but racing. I respect her as a person and look up to her with what she has done and her longevity in the sport. It is nice to catch up, to see her in marshalling and have a chat. It’s fun racing the best in the world. It gets the best out of me and them. I hoped the hype lived up to expectation.” Well, no one was complaining. 

Titmus also caught up with Canadian teen sensation Summer MacIntosh who was 0.88 behind her in second place in 3min58.37.

Despite MacIntosh’s challenging swim Titmus confessed she was never stretched and “felt pretty good the whole way”. “I definitely started feeling it in the last 100m but I left everything out there. I gave it everything I could.”

So let’s get back to what else happened on her big first night out. After easily winning the 400m freestyle gold she watched with pride as freestyle training partner Mollie O’Callaghan along with Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris won Australia’s fourth successive 4x100m relay Olympic gold ahead of America and China. It was McKeon’s sixth gold medal and Jack’s first to boot.

To be fair Australia would have had to be disqualified not to win this relay as they were the defending Olympic champions, the 2023 world champions and the world record holders. 

Australia now has the honour of winning four Olympic relay gold medals in a row (London-Rio-Tokyo-Paris). 

But wait there’s more. The Australian men came to the fore with world No2 Elijah Winnington, 23, winning the silver medal in the 400m freestyle in 3min42.21, just 0.43 second behind German golden boy and world No1 Lukas Maertens. Both Winnington and Sam Short, who was fourth in the 400m, will back up for the 800m freestyle final on Tuesday.

Not to be completely outshone by the women, even though they were, the Australian 4x100m men’s relay team won another silver behind the USA and ahead of Italy in third, The team of Jack Cartwright, Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Kyle Chalmers were 1.07 seconds behind the winning US team in 3min10.35.

All this was happening while Titmus was doing her honour lap, collecting her gold medal, singing the national anthem, doing press conferences, hugging her crazy coach Dean Boxhall  and sharing the gold and glory with her poolside family and friends and fans. 

All in all she summed up her feelings on the night as being relieved, because she’s got a big program ahead starting with the defence of her 200m freestyle on Sunday and Monday. Plus she’s got the 800m against Ledecky and the 4x200m relay to bring home. 

“I know what it takes to be an Olympic champion and I know how hard it is racing in these circumstances at an Olympic Games. The noise and atmosphere and pressure and village life makes performing well hard. But I am really happy to come out on top.”

Get some sleep Ariarne at that noisy athletes village and let’s do it all again tomorrow night.