Ariarne Titmus retires from swimming

Ariarne Titmus, a four-time Olympic swimming gold medalist for Australia who cast a rivalry with Katie Ledecky, introduced her retirement at age 25.

“A tough (decision), a really tough one, but one that I’m really happy with,” Titmus, who took a break from competing in 2025, said in a video interview. “I love swimming. I’ve always loved swimming. It’s been my passion since I was a little girl. But I guess I’ve taken this time away from the sport and realized some things in my life that have always been important to me are just a little bit more important to me now than swimming, and that’s OK.”

Titmus received Olympic 200m and 400m freestyle titles in Tokyo, then earned gold within the 400m free and the 4x200m free relay on the Paris Games. She broke world data in each the 200m and 400m free.

Titmus, a swimmer from an unlikely Australian area who was nicknamed “the Terminator,” is the one particular person to win a person Olympic race over Ledecky, doing so thrice.

“To win Olympic gold, I just didn’t have to be the best in the world, I had to beat the greatest ever in the world,” Titmus stated. “And you know what? Someone could look at that as a burden, but I absolutely looked at it as a blessing. Because I can say without a doubt, without racing Katie, I wouldn’t have been the athlete that I am. She set this incredible standard, and I was just so willing to chase it. I just feel so grateful that I’ve been a part of such an incredible rivalry. I feel like we both have so much respect for each other, and that will really sit with me for the rest of my life, that rivalry that I’ve had with her.”

Ledecky, 28, has stated she plans to swim no less than by the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Her major rival is now 19-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh, who broke Titmus’ 400m free world file in June and is the second-fastest girl in historical past within the 800m free behind Ledecky.

The first person who Titmus advised when she considered retiring was Dean Boxall, her coach for practically a decade who’s best known for his excited reaction to her Tokyo Olympic 400m free gold.

“The old Dean would have been, ‘No Arnie, you need to be in the pool now!’” Titmus stated. “But he was actually the opposite, and I think it’s because we set out to do everything we planned.”

Titmus stated earlier this 12 months that she was on the “tail end” of her profession and that 2028 can be her final Olympics. She had dominated out bidding for a house Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.

“I always intended to return,” Titmus stated within the video revealed Wednesday. “I never thought that Paris would be my last Olympic Games, and knowing now what I know, I wish I had of maybe enjoyed that last race a little bit more, but I guess having this 12 months away, I’ve really had the chance to explore what life is like without swimming, and that was always my intention.

“But I think a turning point for me, or a time when a switch was flipped, was in the lead-up to the Paris Games, I went through some health challenges (Titmus had two benign tumors removed from her right ovary in September 2023), which, quite frankly, really rocked me mentally. It probably was the first time where I considered some things outside of swimming. My whole swimming career, I’ve been all or nothing, and that’s how I’ve had to be to become the athlete that I am. I’ve just been in this ruthless pursuit for my goals. Working alongside Dean, that’s the way that we both decided it had to be for me to beat Katie Ledecky. But I think delving more into those health challenges, I’ve really had to look within and think about what’s most important to me. Beyond swimming, I’ve always had goals in my personal life, but swimming has always been most important up until this point, and I’ve just realized that those goals and what I want in my future is now more important to me.”

Ariarne Titmus, who upset an ailing Katie Ledecky in 2019, has been on a mission ever since watching Ledecky from afar in 2016.