Ariarne Titmus hopes to continue Olympic journey through LA 2028 media role

A teary-eyed Ariarne Titmus says she hopes to continue her involvement with the Olympic Games by being part of the media coverage for the LA Olympics in 2028.

Speaking a day after announcing her shock retirement from swimming aged just 25, the four-time Olympic gold medallist said she had made the decision to quit because her heart wasn’t really in it anymore and continuing to compete would have been “half-arsed”.

“If I were to return was I willing to go back to the way I had always been as an athlete?” Titmus said.

“I did not want to go back and half-arse it. I was not willing to go back and be the way I was before so that also helped me make good decisions as well.”

The decision to quit did not come easily with Titmus unsure of what she should do fro a long time before telling her manager she wanted to retire from international swimming.

“It has probably been the toughest decision of my life,” she said.

The Tasmanian product shared a fierce rivalry with US swimming legend Katie Ledecky, who was one of the first people to text her after she made the announcement.

“She was one of the first people yesterday to send me a personal message and congratulate me and say you will be missed and thank you so much for the challenge,” she said.

“I feel really proud of that relationship we have because it goes to show you can leave everything in the pool and still be a good person when you are not racing so I hope I have left that legacy as well.”

Titmus finished the press conference by saying she was “very happy” in her personal life as she fought back tears.

She will retire as one of Australia’s all time great Olympians despite declaring she should probably never have been a champion at all.

Rather than continue to etch her name in the record books at the 2028 Los Angeles Games and spearhead the local charge on home soil in Brisbane in 2032, Titmus stepped away from elite-level swimming.

In announcing her retirement, Titmus said she was an unlikely Olympic gold medallist given she was born and raised in Tasmania, before her family moved to Queensland to help their then 14-year-old realise her potential.

“I probably shouldn’t have become Olympic champion,” she said on Thursday.

“I come from the most southernmost place in this country, freezing, the pools aren’t open outdoors for seven months of the year and I was able to take it to the world and I probably shouldn’t have.

“I think I’m a testament to setting big goals and chasing them and not being afraid of them and swimming’s helped me realise that anything is possible if you work for it.”

In winning four individual gold medals at her two Games - in Tokyo in 2021 and Paris last year - Titmus became one of the greatest-ever middle-distance swimmers and one of Australia’s most celebrated Olympians.

On debut in Tokyo, she overhauled American world record-holder Ledecky in the 400m freestyle final, posted an Olympic record to win the 200m event, and won the silver medal in the 800m freestyle.

But competing in “the race of the century” in Paris was where Titmus truly achieved Olympic legend status.

Titmus won gold against Ledecky, the greatest female swimmer in history, as well as Canadian prodigy Summer McIntosh, who had also held the 400m world record.

In doing so, she became the first Australian female swimmer since Dawn Fraser to win back-to-back gold medals in the same event, with Fraser immortalised following a third 100m freestyle gold in 1964.

Australia has been blessed with athletes to have won multiple Olympic medals in individual sports.

On the track Australia’s most successful Olympic track athlete Shirley Strickland racked up seven medals, going back to back in the 80 metres hurdles, while Cathy Freeman delivered under unimaginable pressure at the Sydney Games to add a 400m gold to the silver won in 1996.

Track sprint queen Betty Cuthbert became the first Australian to win three gold medals in a single Games with her 1956 performance and then backed up later to salute in the 400m in Rome.

In swimming, Shane Gould won an incredible five medals at the 1972 Munich Games, including three golds, while Emma McKeon boasts an Australian record of 12 Olympic medals, eight in relays.

Ian Thorpe has nine Olympic medals, five of which are individual gold including defending his 400m crown from Sydney in Athens in 2004, while Murray Rose also won successive gold medals in the blue riband event.

Canoe slalom megastar Jessica Fox is in the the conversation too, having won three golds - and six medals overall - across four Olympics.

But Titmus sits comfortably in the pantheon of greats.

Australian Olympic Committee president Ian Chesterman described her as an “extraordinary athlete”.

“I had the pleasure of seeing Ariarne compete in Tokyo 2020 and I think of all the things I have seen in sport her victory in the 400m freestyle will go down as one of the greatest, only to back it up in Paris where she again lifted the roof off the stadium as the crowd cheered her home,” Chesterman said.

“Ariarne has set amazing standards for the sport and those that follow.”

With AAP