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Ariarne Titmus won four gold medals, three silver and one bronze during her Olympic career [File: Petr David Josek\/AP Photo]Race of the century<\/p>\nTitmus, famous for beating US swim star Katie Ledecky at the Paris Games, was expected to compete in the 2028 Olympics.<\/p>\n
Published On 16 Oct 202516 Oct 2025<\/p>\n
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Australian four-time Olympic gold medallist Ariarne Titmus has retired from competitive swimming at the age of 25, ending a stellar career that featured one of the sport\u2019s great rivalries with American Katie Ledecky.<\/p>\n
Titmus confirmed her decision on Thursday, bowing out as one of Australia\u2019s most decorated athletes with eight Olympic medals and four world titles.<\/p>\n
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The decision came as a shock to her nation, and the swimming world in general, as she had long planned a return to the pool to chase more Olympic glory at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cA tough one, a really tough one, but one that I\u2019m really happy with,\u201d she said of her decision in a video on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love swimming, I\u2019ve always loved swimming. It\u2019s been my passion since I was a little girl.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I guess I\u2019ve taken this time away from the pool and realised some things in my life that have always been important to me are just a little bit more important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ariarne Titmus won four gold medals, three silver and one bronze during her Olympic career [File: Petr David Josek\/AP Photo]Race of the century<\/p>\n
Titmus won her third individual Olympic gold medal in a 400m freestyle final dubbed \u201cthe race of the century\u201d at the Paris Games when she beat Ledecky and Canada\u2019s Summer McIntosh to defend her title.<\/p>\n
After Paris, she resolved to take a year off from competing and training to recharge, electing to skip the world championships in Singapore and instead cover the meet as a TV commentator.<\/p>\n
But the return to the pool never materialised.<\/p>\n
Titmus had undergone surgery to remove benign tumours from her ovaries eight months before Paris, and she said the health issue had reminded her about having a life outside swimming.<\/p>\n
\u201cDelving more into those health challenges, I\u2019ve had to think about what\u2019s most important to me,\u201d said Titmus, who retires as the 200m freestyle world record holder.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond swimming, I\u2019ve always had goals in my personal life.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than anything, I\u2019m excited for what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n
The face of Australian swimming at the last two Olympics, Titmus\u2019s retirement robs the national team of an inspirational leader who did much to restore the country to superpower status in the sport after a lean decade.<\/p>\n
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Titmus, centre, won the 400m freestyle title at the 2024 Paris Olympics, beating American great Katie Ledecky, right, and rising superstar Summer McIntosh in what was dubbed the \u2018race of the century\u2019 [File: Clodagh Kilcoyne\/Reuters]An incredible career<\/p>\n
Born in Tasmania, Titmus moved to Queensland in her early teens to be trained by elite coach Dean Boxall.<\/p>\n
Earning the nickname Terminator after sweeping the 400m and 800m freestyle titles at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, she then announced herself to the swimming world by beating Ledecky in the 400m freestyle at the 2019 World Championships.<\/p>\n
Two years later, her swim to reel in Ledecky and snatch her 400m freestyle crown at the Tokyo Games became instant swimming folklore, along with Boxall\u2019s manic celebrations in the stands.<\/p>\n
The successful defence of her title in Paris made her the first Australian woman to go back-to-back in an individual swimming event since Dawn Fraser in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
Titmus also bagged two silvers and a relay gold at Paris, including her runner-up finish behind Ledecky in a thrilling 800m freestyle final.<\/p>\n
She always said Ledecky, the \u201cGOAT\u201d of women\u2019s swimming, made her a better rival, but as intense as the rivalry was, there was only mutual admiration, hugs and kind words outside the pool.<\/p>\n
The American great was among those congratulating Titmus on her career after the retirement announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn outstanding competitor, champion and person!\u201d she wrote on Titmus\u2019s Instagram feed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Titmus, famous for beating US swim star Katie Ledecky at the Paris Games, was expected to compete in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,64,63,44,10018,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-218084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218084","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=218084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}