Ariarne Titmus says tumour health scare made her reconsider swimming career ahead of Paris Olympics

Australian swimming superstar Ariarne Titmus says she feared the prospect of infertility when scans discovered two benign tumours in her ovary last year.

The 24-year-old was eight months out from the Paris Olympics when she had to undergo surgery to remove the two growths, which were discovered when she went in for a scan to assess a long-term hip injury.

Swimming suddenly became secondary to her health and, more pertinently to Titmus, her prospects of being a mum.

“It put a lot of things into perspective for me. My body isn’t just a vehicle to train, my body’s purpose, really, is to carry a child one day,” she said on Inherited.

“And that really hit home to me, it made me realise how much I want to be a mum, and it made swimming almost seem a bit irrelevant at the time.

“But then it also made me think, ‘You know what? I’ve got prime position going into these Games, I’ve got a red hot crack here at defending my titles and coming home with gold medals. Bad things can happen in life all the time and stump you, so make the most of this opportunity’.

“I think after that operation I just went crazy.”

Titmus said starting a family is far more important to her than any of the four Olympic gold medals she has won in Tokyo and Paris.

“I’ve always wanted to be a mum, but it (the health scare) probably made me realise how much I want it,” she said.

“I would give up every gold medal I’ve ever won to have a child.

“I just have such maternal instincts, and I think the fear of potentially that becoming harder by the prospect of losing the ovary was really tough.

“I’m so lucky that I’ve got the best mum in the world, and I just want to be that one day.”

The two-time reigning 400m freestyle Olympic champion said the news of her tumours was vexing, given the context of when she received it, less than a year out from the 2024 Games.

“It was really, really challenging,” she said.

“I was battling in my head, post-surgery, one side of me being like, ‘Let your body heal, let your body get better because you need to let yourself recover’. And then the other part of my brain was like, ‘No, you only have eight months (until the Olympics), you’ve got to get going’.

“I had my coach pushing me and every day checking, like, ‘How’s it feeling? How’s it feeling?’

“Because when you get your abdominal walls cut open, it takes a while to heal. And especially swimming, (which) is such a core-dominant sport.

“It was really, really, really challenging, but I’m actually glad it happened because it made me have a different outlook on life.”

She successfully recovered from the scare to win two gold and two silver medals in Paris.

Speaking shortly after the surgery last year, Titmus said motherhood was always her first thought.

“In these moments you think of the worst-case scenario, and I was petrified of potentially losing the ovary or there being implications that could affect me and my desire to have children one day,” she said at the time.

“However, I am one of the lucky ones.

“My ovary was 8.5x7cm in size and contained two benign tumours called dermoids, both 4cm in size.

“Yesterday I had surgery and they were removed safely. I’m feeling well and relieved they are out.”