Ariarne Titmus watched Katie Ledecky dominate the Rio Games on TV aged 15. Now SHE is the champion. Inside the Golden Girl's rise to poolside 'Terminator' - and why all the pressure is on her as the pair prepare to clash again in Tokyo
- Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus watched Katie Ledecky win in Rio on TV
- Now sandy-haired 20-year-old from Tasmania is the 400m Olympic champion
- Titmus, who wears lucky socks to meets, is daughter of runner and journalist
- A younger Titmus described Ledecky, 24, as her 'inspiration' in the pool
- The pair are still slated to face off in the 200m and 800m freestyle events
- Find out the latest Tokyo Olympic news including schedule, medal table and results right here
Five years ago, a teenage Ariarne Titmus watched the TV in awe as swimming legend Katie Ledecky snared three gold medals and smashed two world records at the Rio Games.
'No-one is ever going to get near this chick,' Titmus, then 15, recalled thinking at the time.
Fast forward to Monday and it was the Tasmanian-born, Brisbane-based young gun Titmus, now 20, who stepped onto the winner's podium in Tokyo and claimed Olympic gold.
Five-time Olympic champion Ledecky, the best female swimmer of her generation, was left holding the silver, trounced by the Aussie dubbed 'The Terminator' who swam over the top of the American in the final 150m of the 400m freestyle final.
While Titmus was an unknown quantity to the millions watching the Games around the world, Ledecky was under no illusions she was a major threat.
Titmus - the sandy-haired daughter of a runner mum and a TV news producer - has been shaping up as a dangerous rival for years.
Australia's golden girl: Ariarne Titmus, 20, beams as she shows off her gold medal in the women's 400m freestyle event at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday
Swimming's new rivalry: Ariarne Titmus won gold in the 400m freestyle rival - trouncing American wunderkind Katie Ledecky
Titmus's family picked up everything and moved from Tasmania to Queensland to chase her swimming dream. Above, father Steve, a chief of staff at the Seven Network; mother Robyn, a former sprinter; and sister Mia (left)
Four years ago, up-and-comer Titmus told a Queensland newspaper that ruthless Ledecky was an 'inspiration' to her.
After all, Ledecky had dominated the London Games, the world championships in Barcelona and Kazan Russia, then Rio.
'She's definitely an inspiration for me because she's only three years older,' she told the Courier-Mail.
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'Seeing her at worlds and being able to race her, it was really good to learn from her.'
And learn she did.
At the 2019 world championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Titmus pushed out Ledecky in the final 20m of the 400m freestyle final.
As Daily Mail Australia's Mike Colman noted last week, Ledecky later complained of tired legs and spent several hours in hospital for what was described as a 'stomach virus'.
It was Ledecky's first defeat in 28 major meets, all to a young talent who sweetly twinkles her fingers before the starter's gun, and wears lucky socks to every final.
Swimming officials were abuzz last month when Titmus swam the second fastest 400m ever recorded at the Australian Olympic swim trials in Adelaide.
But nothing - nothing - could beat her tremendous victory on Monday, memorably marked by her proud coach Dean Boxall's victory dance.
He tore off his face mask, almost threw it into the crowd, thrusted his hips and burst into tears.
Victory was a huge vindication for Titmus and her family.
Proud coach: Dean Boxall could not contain his excitement and was spotted erupting into applause, tearing off his face mask and almost throwing it into the stands
Parents Robyn and Steve packed up everything and left Launceston in 2019, due to a lack of swimming opportunities in the island state.
Now they are celebrating an Olympic gold medallist - who is still expected to face off against Ledecky on two further occasions at these Games.
The 200m (July 28) and 800m freestyle (July 31) gongs remain up for grabs.
'I've been trying to chase her,' Titmus admitted to reporters poolside. '(It's) really exciting now we have this battle going. It's really fun to race.'
Swimming Australia deputy chairperson Tracy Stockwell had tipped Titmus for victory in the 400m in a prior interview with Daily Mail Australia.
Previously known as Tracy Caulkins, she was the USA's star performer in the pool at the LA Games in 1984, winning gold medals in the 200m and 400m individual medley and 4x100m medley relay.
Married to Australia's 100m freestyle silver medallist Mark Stockwell from the 1984 Games and living in Brisbane since 1991 as head of Swimming Australia's high-performance committee, she has closely monitored the progress of Titmus.
Before Titmus's victory, Ms Caulkins said she believed Titmus's best chance of beating Ledecky will be in the 400m.
'I think all three races will be close but if Ariarne is going to win only one, the 400m will probably be it,' she said.
Titmus's star has been on the rise for some time... Above with The Project's Peter Hellier and Waleed Aly
Young gun Aussie swimmer Ariarne Titmus will no doubt now be viewed in a new light following her remarkable success
Katie Ledecky already has five gold medals to her name, including the 800m freestyle from the London Olympics aged just 15
US swimming royalty Katie Ledecky is still favourite to win the 200m and 800m freestyle events - but has even more reason to be wary now
Ariarne Titmus is now an Olympic gold medallist. Could she sweep Ledecky throughout the rest of the Tokyo Games?
Tracy Caulkins, the USA's star performer in the pool at the LA Games in 1984, believes Katie Ledecky (pictured) can be beaten by Aussie Ariarne Titmus in the 400m freestyle final at the Tokyo Olympics
'She showed at the trials that she has the speed whereas Katie, as a 1500m swimmer, has the endurance so she will probably have the edge in the 800m.
'We haven't seen any female swimmer as dominant as Katie for a long time. She wasn't well at the 2019 worlds but still gave a good fight in the 400m.
'Even so, that win gave Ariarne the belief that Katie is beatable and that is going to be very important.
'She's going into the Olympics with youth and momentum on her side and that is an advantage, but at the same time Katie has the experience of competing at two Olympics and that could be a big help.'
Will youth and momentum win out a second or third time? Australia will be watching.
What a swim, what an Australian moment, writes columnist MIKE COLMAN. Ariarne Titmus's race will be written into the history books with those of Dawn Fraser, Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe
What a moment: Ariarne Titmus, Olympic champion
How good was that swim by Ariarne Titmus?
No, seriously, how good was it? Where does it rate with some of the great Olympic performances by Australians over the years?
They say in sport it is impossible to compare different eras. How can you rate a footballer or cricketer from 1920 against one from 2020? You can't, because the playing fields aren't level.
Different rules, difference equipment, different food … over the years it is a whole new ballgame.
But the Olympics is another animal altogether.
Different eras can be compared because the basic premise remains the same year after year.
It's the Olympics, the pinnacle of sport, and with that comes a once-every-four-year (or in this case, five year) opportunity to achieve greatness.
Miss your chance and you might not get another one. Unlike footy or cricket or tennis, it's not on again next week or even next year.
And with that comes enormous pressure.
Just getting to the Olympics is an achievement in itself. Making the final of an event is huge. Winning is out of this world.
Australia has produced some of the greatest Olympic champions of all time. Boy Charlton, Dawn Fraser, Betty Cuthbert, Murray Rose, Herb Elliott, Shane Gould, Grant Hackett, Anna Meares – all names that stand alongside the best of the best.
But sometimes, there are added elements that make achieving the seemingly impossible even harder.
In 1996 Kieren Perkins was the biggest name in Australian sport. The reigning Olympic 1500m freestyle champion, he was described by the US magazine Sports Illustrated as 'Australia's Michael Jordan'.
But Perkins arrived at the Atlanta Games on the crest of a slump. He just scraped into the Australian team as number two 1500m swimmer behind Daniel Kowalski.
His form didn't seem to have improved by the time the 1500m heats were held, and he went into the final as slowest qualifier.
It is now history that Perkins led from start to finish in lane eight to win the most celebrated victory in Australian swimming history.
That was one special win.
Four years later came another one for the ages.
No-one in the history of Australia sport has ever been under as much pressure as Cathy Freeman on September 25, 2000.
The face of the Sydney Games, a symbol of national reconciliation and favourite to win the women's 400 metres, she carried the hopes of 20 million people of her back as she ran that unforgettable lap of the Olympic Stadium.
Anyone who was there will never forget the sight of that small figure in a one-piece full-length running suit circling the track, her every step illuminated by thousands of camera flashes before she crossed the line first and sunk to the ground in shock.
It doesn't get more special than that.
Ariarne Titmus will now face even more pressure after her tremendous victory
If the pressure on Freeman was immense in Sydney, it was only minutely less for Ian Thorpe who was expected to dominate the pool at his first Olympics, aged 17.
He didn't disappoint, winning Australia's first gold medal of the Games on the first night of competition, taking out the 400m freestyle in world record time.
But the best was yet to come. In the lead-up to the Games extroverted American swimmer Gary Hall Jnr had predicted that the US would 'smash the Australians like guitars' in the pool.
Less than an hour after winning the 400m, Thorpe was lining up against Hall as anchor of the men's 4x100m freestyle relay.
The USA had never lost the event in its history and although the first three Australians, Michael Klim, Chris Fydler and Ashley Callus had got off to a blistering start, Hall Jnr was half a body length in front of Thorpe as they turned for home.
With 25 metres to go Hall was still leading but Thorpe was dragging him back with every stroke, pulling level with two metres left and surging to the wall in world record time as his team-mates played air-guitars to a delirious crowd.
Beyond special.
How does Ariarne Titmus compare to any of those?
Well, let's see.
At 20-years-of-age at her first Olympics she was swimming against Katie Ledecky, the greatest middle-distance female swimmer in history; a 24-year-old veteran of two Olympic Games with five Olympic and 15 world championship gold medals, as well as three world records, to her name.
In 12 years Ledecky had only been beaten once over 200m, 400m, 800m or 1500m – by Titmus in the 400m freestyle at the 2019 world championships – and that was when she was suffering from a virus.
It was a shock loss that the Americans were quick to write off, and while the quietly spoken Ledecky isn't one to make rash predictions (with her track record she doesn't have to), her team-mate, breaststroke champion Lilly King went so far as to predict that the US women would win every individual event in the Tokyo Aquatic Centre.
While those words wouldn't have bothered the icy-cool Titmus, like all other competitors in Tokyo her preparation was far from ideal.
After her semi-final swim she revealed that it was the first time she had gone through a normal pre-race marshalling procedure for over a year.
Titmus faced unique challenges in Tokyo - but is now in special company, a champion in her own right
More disrupting was the fact that her family could not be in Tokyo to cheer her on. The parents and siblings of all Olympic athletes support them every step of their journey, but not all have made the sacrifice of the Titmus's, who uprooted their lives from Tasmania so that Ariarne could receive top class international coaching in Queensland.
Due to Covid restrictions the closest her parents, sister, grandparents, and boyfriend could get to Tokyo was a TV screen in a hotel room in Noosa.
Her coach Dean Boxall was poolside though, and gave the best victory dance seen from an Australian coach since Laurie Lawrence went bananas after Duncan Armstrong's win in Seoul '88.
Duncan Armstrong, now there was a special performance.
Matter of fact, that all have been. They have to be to win Olympic gold.
Ask Dawn or Cathy or Kieren or Thorpie – and from today, you can ask Arnie too.
She's in special company.
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