Ariarne Titmus, a four-time Olympic swimming gold medalist for Australia who forged a rivalry with Katie Ledecky, announced 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 won Olympic 200m and 400m freestyle titles in Tokyo, then earned gold in the 400m free and the 4x200m free relay at the Paris Games. She broke world records in both the 200m and 400m free.
Titmus, a swimmer from an unlikely Australian region who was nicknamed “the Terminator,” is the only person to win an individual Olympic race over Ledecky, doing so three times.
“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 said. “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 commented on Titmus’ retirement post, “An outstanding competitor, champion and person!”
Ledecky, 28, has said she plans to swim at least through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Her primary rival is now 19-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh, who broke Titmus’ 400m free world record in June and is the second-fastest woman in history in the 800m free behind Ledecky.
The first person that Titmus told when she thought about retiring was Dean Boxall, her coach for nearly a decade who is 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 said. “But he was actually the opposite, and I think it’s because we set out to do everything we planned.”
Titmus said earlier this year that she was at the “tail end” of her career and that 2028 would be her last Olympics. She had ruled out bidding for a home Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.
“I always intended to return,” Titmus said in the video published 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.”
