Olympic swimming legend Ariarne Titmus has opened up further about her decision to retire at the age of 25, saying she had lost her “fire”.
Titmus revealed the shocking news on Instagram on Thursday morning, writing a lengthy post as well as a video explaining her decision.
Speaking to Sunrise on Friday morning, Titmus revealed more about her decision to step away from the sport.
She said she realised something was off during her break following the 2024 Paris Olympics when her coach Dean Boxall broached the idea of getting back into training.
“I always planned to go for three (Olympics) in a row and then I guess when the time was coming for Dean to get me back to training, we were sitting down kind of running through the timeline and i was like ‘oh I don’t really know if I’m ready to come back yet’ and he said ‘well you’ve gotta kinda come back at some point’.
“I left it a few weeks and I was like I just have zero fire left and I thought to myself, you know what if I was to go back, I probably could perform the way that I had if I wanted to but I don’t want to be there just because, I wanted to be there because I wanted to be there because I want to be … the athlete that I’ve always been.
“I know I wouldn’t be able to do that while my eyes were on other things and my heart was elsewhere.”
The swimmer also said a major health scare back in 2023 had been playing on her mind.
Titmus underwent surgery to remove two benign tumours after a large growth was found on her right ovary.
She said having the surgery so close to the Paris Olympics gave her a new perspective on life.
“I think as an athlete you’re on a one-way street and its all or nothing and your performance is all that matters but I think when I went through that, I truly realised there’s so much more to life,” she said.
“I always thought about those things but I was like ‘oh that’s for later in life’ and you never worried about it but going through that and dealing with the repercussions of that has definitely played into the decision.”
Titmus said she and her coach Dean Boxall, who went viral for his reaction to the swimmer’s 400m freestyle final win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, had dinner on Thursday night which they spent reminiscing on her career.
“The one thing that we just kept coming back to was by god that was tough, that was bloody hard, and I think that’s why he had that reaction because it was just this out of body experience.
“We just weren’t trying to win an Olympic gold, we had to beat the greatest ever to win Olympic gold.
“Look you may never see a reaction like that again, but I feel very, very special that I was the athlete that helped bring that out of him.”
Ariarne Titmus announced her retirement from swimming aged just 25. Credit: AAP
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The Aussie swimming icon dives into a new chapter, cementing herself as one of the nations all time greats.
The Aussie swimming icon dives into a new chapter, cementing herself as one of the nations all time greats.