She confirmed she had retired on Thursday<\/a> after taking an extended break following last year’s Paris Olympics.<\/p>\nKaylee McKeown, who has won five Olympic gold medals for Australia during her career, was among those to shower Titmus with praise.<\/p>\n
“You are incredible,” McKeown wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n
“[I’m] Privileged to have witnessed a living legend in the sport.”<\/p>\n
Mollie O’Callaghan and Titmus \u2014 who both trained under Dean Boxall at Brisbane’s St Peters Western Swim Club \u2014 enjoyed a stirring rivalry in the 200 metres freestyle.<\/p>\n
O’Callaghan, who pipped Titmus for the gold over the distance in Paris, offered her congratulations.<\/p>\n
“So grateful to have trained alongside you,” O’Callaghan wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n
“Wishing you all the best in this next chapter!”<\/p>\n
![\"Titmus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/b0030a5205803ae2dee6520a208494af\")
<\/p>\n
Ariarne Titmus (left) finished runner-up to Mollie O’Callaghan in the Paris 200m freestyle final. (Getty Images: Sarah Stier)<\/p>\n
One of Titmus’s four Olympic gold medals came as a member of Australia’s 4x200m freestyle team in Paris.<\/p>\n
Brianna Throssell, who swam the relay leg before Titmus anchored Australia to gold in an Olympic record, took to Instagram to write about the inspiration her teammate provided fellow swimmers.<\/p>\n
“What a career,” Throssell posted.<\/p>\n
“You’ve carried a nation, inspired a generation and done it all with such grace and heart.<\/p>\n
“Your legacy will echo for years!!! So proud of everything you have achieved and to have been a little part of your journey.<\/p>\n
“Thank you roomie.”<\/p>\n
On social media platform X, the Australian Swim Team thanked Titmus for her contribution to the sport, describing her career as “wonderful”.<\/p>\n
It has not just been the swimming fraternity who have come out in droves with congratulations.<\/p>\n
Three-time Olympic canoe slalom champion, Jess Fox, cherished the friendship she shared with Titmus.<\/p>\n
“It was such a privilege to watch you race, to be Olympic teammates with you, and even more to become friends,” Fox wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n
Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n
Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) president 2020 chef de mission, Ian Chesterman, said Titmus had left an enormous impact.<\/p>\n
“Ariarne has set amazing standards for the sport and those that follow,” Chesterman said in an AOC statement.<\/p>\n
“Ariarne has always conducted herself so well out of the pool as well as in the pool.<\/p>\n
“Someone who you talk about being an absolute champion, someone who has shown all the traits that you want in a young athlete and who has achieved the ultimate success.<\/p>\n
“Ariarne \u2014 thank you for all you have done.”<\/p>\n
Australia’s Paris chef de Mission and fellow Olympic gold medallist, Anna Meares, offered similar sentiments.<\/p>\n
“Ariarne has been the exemplar of performance and excellence throughout her entire career,” she said.<\/p>\n
“No-one will ever forget her fierce determination to rise through the ranks not just to take on the greats of her sport but to surpass them.”<\/p>\n
International rivals praise Titmus<\/p>\n
Titmus put the international swimming community on notice in 2019 by defeating Katie Ledecky in the 400m freestyle final at the world championships, staged in Gwangju.<\/p>\n
Ledecky was a three-time world champion in the event, as well as the reigning Olympic gold medallist.<\/p>\n
She also held the world record, for good measure.<\/p>\n
Titmus would also relegate Ledecky to silver in the 400m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, although the legendary American distance swimmer reversed that result in the 800m freestyle.<\/p>\n
The pair enjoyed a fierce but friendly rivalry, with Ledecky taking to Instagram to tip her hat to Titmus.<\/p>\n
“An outstanding competitor, champion and person!” Ledecky wrote.<\/p>\n
![\"Ariarne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ad4478087d5bcd6f10da4f5b4c9e19cc\")
<\/p>\n
Ariarne Titmus (centre) beat home Summer McIntosh (right) and Katie Ledecky to win the women’s 400m freestyle final at the Paris Olympics. (Getty Images: Sarah Stier)<\/p>\n
Canada’s Summer McIntosh was another of Titmus’s rivals.<\/p>\n
McIntosh broke Titmus’s world 400m freestyle record of 3:56.40, when she swam 3:56.08 in 2023.<\/p>\n
But Titmus recorded 3:55.38 to regain the global mark on her way to winning gold at the 2023 world championships in Fukuoka, with McIntosh finishing fourth in the final.<\/p>\n
McIntosh, who was second to Titmus in the 400m freestyle at the Paris Olympics, took back the world record earlier this year, swimming 3:54.18.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, McIntosh paid her respect to Titmus’s time in the pool.<\/p>\n
“Congratulations on an incredible career and all the very best in your next chapter!” she wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n
“You will be missed!”<\/p>\n
![\"ariarne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/afd5664374acdc2c4bac3eb45c2888bc\")
<\/p>\n
Ariarne Titmus won a swag of gold medals at the Commonwealth Games. (Getty Images:\u00a0Shaun Botterill)<\/p>\n
Aside from her Olympic and world championships success, Titmus also won seven Commonwealth Games gold medals.<\/p>\n
“Ariarne has been nothing short of exceptional throughout her career, a fierce competitor in the pool and a wonderful ambassador for Australian sport,” Commonwealth Games Australia chief executive Craig Phillips said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Her achievements on the Commonwealth Games stage are part of an incredible body of work that has inspired teammates, fans and young athletes right across the country.<\/p>\n
“We thank Ariarne for the way she has represented Australia with pride and passion, and we look forward to seeing what she achieves in the next chapter of her life.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olympic teammates and rivals have paid tribute to the career of Australian swimming great Ariarne Titmus, who has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[132487,64,63,16652,132594,132596,10018,2591,85,132595,15997,11804,25247],"class_list":["post-216998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ariarne-titmus","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-gold-medals","tag-katie-ledecky","tag-olumpic-games","tag-olympics","tag-paris","tag-sports","tag-summer-mcintosh","tag-swimming","tag-tokyo","tag-world-championships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}