By: Serena Tu

With one world record and two individual gold medals at the 2021 Olympics, Ariarne Titmus is one of the greatest Australian swimmers in the world. Nonetheless, while swimmers in Budapest will be preparing to swim their best at world championships, Titmus will be at home — sleeping.

Titmus first rose to fame when she beat Katie Ledecky, an Olympic gold medalist, in the 400 free at World Championships in 2019. Last year in the 2021 Olympics, Titmus beat Ledecky once again in the 400-meter freestyle and also surpassed Ledecky in the 200-meter freestyle.

Titmus felt that she didn’t need to be at Worlds’ and said that she wanted to “think about the long term” and focus on competing in the Commonwealth Games. “I don’t focus too much on other people. I really just worry about myself,” Titmus stated.

Titmus says she swims because she loves it and wants to perform at the Olympic games, not to be in the headlines or media.

This year is the first year in almost twenty years that the Commonwealth Games has been held the same year as the World Championships, and many other swimmers are making the decision to focus on one instead of another. Several other Australian swimmers are skipping this year’s world swimming championships to focus on the Commonwealth Games.

The next time Ariane Titmus and Katie Ledecky face off maybe 2023, but until then, both will be training and working hard to beat each other.

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