Ariarne Titmus walks away from Brisbane 2032 Olympics days before losing 400m freestyle world record
Olympics
— days before a young rival emphatically took her 400m freestyle world record.
Titmus has been out of the pool since the end of a Paris 2024 campaign that reiterated her status as one of the sport's champions.
But while the 24-year-old has rested and had a taste of life after
swimming
, her nearest rival has soared to new heights.
After being beaten to gold by Titmus last year Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh smashed the Aussie's world record at the Canadian trials over the weekend.
McIntosh clocked 3:54.18 — an astonishing 1.2 seconds faster than Titmus's previous mark from the 2023 world championships final.
'Touching the wall, you can kind of see my outburst of emotions because I was really not expecting that time. But overall I'm super, super happy,' McIntosh said.
'I think just seeing the time after two years of really pushing my hardest every day and training in this event and not seeing the results...
'So just kind of all that energy and anger and blood, sweat and tears built up and then finally having an amazing swim in it is just really, really satisfying.'
McIntosh is gearing up to chase gold at the 2025 world championships against American legend Katie Ledecky.
Titmus, meanwhile, will
head down the slide for FightMND's Big Freeze 11 fundraiser at Monday's AFL blockbuster
— one last cold plunge before jumping back into the familiar surrounds of a 50m pool.
Her eyes are firmly on retaining her 400m crown at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, and no further.
'I know that this is the tail end of my career, I know that the LA Olympics will be my last,' Titmus said on
Two Am I
.
With so much focus on her LA 2028 return, Titmus has never been so categorical on retiring before Brisbane 2032.
She will 31 and just weeks away from turning 32 when the Queensland capital joins Melbourne (1956) and Sydney (2000) as an Olympic host city.
Australia has never had a woman aged 31 or older swim at the Olympics, though Emma McKeon won one gold, one silver and one bronze at Paris 2024 soon after her 30th birthday.
But life after swimming is far more important to Titmus than a slice of history.
'I just don't want to be an athlete that retires from their sport and is lost and has nothing to do,' she said.
'I think that it was so important for me to channel different areas of my life to know that when I do leave the sport behind, I'm going to be alright.'
Titmus said she maintained high-volume training loads from the age of 13 to 21 and had never had more than two weeks off at a time.
Two months off after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 gave her a taste of normal life, a precursor to a busy past 12 months.
Titmus's absence from Brisbane 2032 in her adopted home state of Queensland would be a big blow for Australia, though fresh faces would doubtless emerge to contend for gold alongside a 28-year-old Mollie O'Callaghan.
Kaylee McKeown, who turns 24 next month, has also previously declared she will not swim beyond Los Angeles 2028.
McKeown will be the headline act at the Australian trials this week as the swimming world hones in on the world championships beginning in late July.
Meanwhile at the Canadian trials, McIntosh set a marker ahead of her battle with Ledecky.
Titmus and McIntosh have gone toe-to-tie since the Aussie first surpassed Ledecky in 2021.
Titmus took Ledecky's Olympic crown in Tokyo then came for her world record in 2022.
McIntosh claimed the world record for the first time in March the following year but Titmus responded in style just months later.
She set a new world record of 3:55.38 to win gold at the 2023 world championships, with McIntosh missing out on the medals.
Titmus then won gold at Paris 2024 by almost a second over McIntosh while Ledecky claimed bronze.
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