TITMUS TAKES A BREATH
Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus has spent time away from the pool since her Tokyo triumphs, writes
TWO months have passed since Ariarne Titmus achieved the seemingly impossible at the Tokyo Olympics, where she won two gold medals and a bronze in the pool.
And that means it has also been two months since her last swim. “I haven’t done any laps,” Titmus reveals. “And I’ve got another two weeks before I head into training.”
Titmus and coach Dean Boxall struck a deal after the Games, wherein he and his star recruit agreed she could take an extended break from training.
“This is the first time in my life I’ve focused on things other than swimming and I’m really enjoying it,” she says. “I’ve enjoyed having that extra glass of wine and not worrying what time I’m going to bed because I have to get up early to train. I made a deal with myself that while I was on break I wasn’t going to worry about what I was eating, or weigh myself. And I wouldn’t think about how hard training is going to be for me when I return.”
Although the time away from the pool has not exactly been relaxing for Titmus, who – since joining the likes of fellow Olympians Ian Thorpe and Cathy Freeman as one of the country’s most marketable athletes – has been inundated with interviews and opportunities.
“I do need to take some time to myself before I go back to training, because I’ve felt everyone wanted a piece of me since I got back.”
Since returning from Tokyo, Titmus celebrated her milestone 21st birthday and travelled to Launceston, where she was awarded the keys to the city where she was born.
“I was so nervous getting the keys,” Titmus admits.
“I walked into the ceremony behind drummers from my old school St Patricks, and I had the same butterflies like I was about to race. It was crazy.”
Titmus, who rode horses as a young girl before she decided to switch sports and take up swimming, has also partnered with the Victoria Racing Club as an ambassador for the Lexus Melbourne Cup Carnival.
The now Brisbane-based swimmer says reconnecting with horses for the first time since she was 12 has been a highlight, adding that she felt a particular kinship when she was visiting the race horses on a recent photo shoot. “They were like me: athletes taking a break from their sport, fattening up, relaxing... so they can come back stronger.”
Her busy post-Olympic schedule has meant Titmus still has not had a proper chance to let her achievement at the Games fully sink in; however, experiencing a taste of life beyond the pool for the first time in so long has ironically made her hungry to get right back in and push for more.
“I’m definitely hungry to achieve more in swimming,” she says.
“A part of me has loved this different side to my life – but I would choose the life of a professional athlete over the one I’m living now.”
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