RISING STARS
“nailed” her last turn to come off the wall a fraction of a second ahead of Ledecky but was not about to assume she had the race won.
Breathing away from her rival on the final lap, she had no idea whether she had won or not when she hit the wall.
“All I knew was I had to give it everything and if she had a better last 50m than me, she deserved to win,” Titmus said.
“I always take my cap off and goggles off before I look at the scoreboard and have a little moment to myself where I think: ‘Yeah, I was happy with that’.
“And then I turned around and saw the number one and I tell you what, it wasn’t happiness or joy, I think relief was the overwhelming emotion, that I’d finally actually done it.
“You just get this wave of calmness over you.”
There wasn’t quite as much calm earlier in the race, on pool deck at least.
It seemed the race was not following the meticulous plan Titmus and coach Dean Boxall had set before the race.
However, the pair had prepared so thoroughly, she was ready for any situation.
“Looking back, I can see how people were worried,” Titmus said. “I let her go in the second 100m, probably more than what I’d planned to. I probably wanted
to be sticking to her a bit more.
“But I remember in the race, I wanted to make sure I had enough left in the end. I didn’t want to burn myself too early.
“In hindsight, I probably should have just trusted myself more and taken it out more with her. But I probably let her go a bit too much in the second 100m … I can see how Dean was a bit worried.”
Consequently, Titmus had to make her move slightly earlier than expected to ensure Ledecky did not establish a race-winning lead.
“My plan was to have a great last 150m and breathing away I didn’t know where she was, so I remember I had to
bring the legs in probably earlier than I thought because I was a bit further back,” she said.
However, the woman nicknamed “The Terminator” by her own father for the way she attacked races knew victories were sealed by the best racer and fearlessly knuckled down.
The win kickstarted a magnificent Olympics for Titmus, who went on to win the 200m freestyle before adding a bronze medal with the 4x200m relay.
She’s keen to repeat the dose in Paris despite a setback late last year when she had an
operation to remove benign tumours from her ovary.
Compared to the lead-up to Tokyo, when Titmus battled shoulder problems and doubts about whether the Games would go ahead due to Covid lockdowns, the 23-year-old feels she has greater clarity heading into her second Olympic campaign.
“After Tokyo, it’s harder to motivate yourself when you’ve achieved everything you’ve ever wanted to,” she said.
“I had to really pick my moment to know that I would be ready to be able to go back into that mindset.
“I wasn’t ready post-Tokyo for I’d say a year and a half. I really wasn’t ready to be completely immersed in swimming and I feel like I am now. It’s the internal motivation that’s really pushing me. I just believe that I have a lot more in me to give. I just have this feeling that Paris is probably one of my last chances to really perform at my peak and that just really excites me.”
Longevity does not drive Titmus. The Tasmanian is not necessarily burning to swim at an Olympics in her adopted city of Brisbane in 2032.
She knows she can create a lasting legacy by becoming the first woman since Martha Norelius in 1928 to defend the Olympic 400m title, while no woman has achieved the feat over 200m.
“Longevity is something that doesn’t really cross my mind,” Titmus said.
“I don’t think that my career should ever be determined on whether I swim to 2025, ’26, ’27 or ’32.
“Whether I go to two or three Olympics, it doesn’t matter, I really want to perform in those big moments.”
It’s not going to be easy. As well as Ledecky, Titmus faces threats from Canadian prodigy Summer McIntosh, who this month beat Ledecky over 800m to hand the US great her first loss over the distance in more than 13 years.
But Titmus will not shy away from the challenge.
“With the goals I have set for Paris, if I don’t defend my titles, I will be upset,” she said.
“I believe I have it in me to win. I believe that I will be able to train at a level and race at a level that is going to be hard to beat. So if I don’t go there and back up what I did in Tokyo, I know I’ll be disappointed in myself.”