By: Grace Liu
At the time of the 2022 Swim Worlds in Budapest, many swimmers would be there warming up, but some swimmers like Ariarne Titmus would be on the other side of the world. She is a champion swimmer that is currently holding the world record for the Women’s 400-meter freestyle.
Titmus’ reason was simple why she didn’t want to go to Worlds; she didn’t think she needed to go. She didn’t swim to be in the news and on social media, she just swam because she loved to swim. According to Titmus, she only wanted to go to the big stage, which for her, was the Olympics.
Ariarne Titmus was born in Launceston, Australia. In her house, she had a backyard pool. When she was little, she saw swimmers at the Beijing Olympics, and she wanted to swim too. The then 7-year-old joined a club and started competing. “Every year, I went to the next thing and before I knew it, I was on the national team,” she said in an interview with Kieran Pender from The New York Times
It was during the Australian swimming championships that Titmus broke the world record for the Women’s 400-meter freestyle. According to AP News, Titmus finished in “3 minutes, 56.40 seconds in Sunday night’s final at the South Australian Aquatic Centre to improve on Katie Ledecky’s previous mark of 3:56.46 that the American set at the 2016 Rio Olympics.”
Titmus had her own reasons why she didn’t attend Worlds, but the biggest reason is that she didn’t want to go. Titmus has confidence and she believes in herself in the pool and outside of the pool. Without Titmus at Worlds, her rival, Katie Ledecky will be sure to dominate. Titmus will attend other competitions, but not that many big ones like Worlds.
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