Swimming at Paris 2024: Ariarne Titmus wins 'race of the century' in 400m freestyle gold, defeats former world record holders
What do you get if you take two Olympic champions, a feisty teenager and put them together in a race where all three were world record holders at one point?
The perfect start to the swimming competition at an Olympic Games, and a major leap forward for women's sport.
Talk of the women’s 400m freestyle started long before the athletes came close to the pool at Paris La Defense Arena, which would be the stage for the final showdown. The characters in that play — Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, USA’s Katie Ledecky and Canada’s Summer McIntosh.
The three swimmers had created a real buzz over the past Olympic cycle, trading top places and even world records. Ledecky set the record on the way to winning the event at Rio 2016. Titmus trumped it in 2022 before McIntosh, then 16, surged to the scene with her own world record mark. Titmus claimed it back four months later, in July 2023.
The Olympic Games Paris 2024 would decide the true champion in what was being hailed as the "race of the century." The name was previously used in reference to the men's 200m freestyle at Athens 2004 where Australia's Ian Thorpe surged to gold ahead of the Netherlands' Pieter van den Hoogenband and USA's Michael Phelps.
This time it was women in the spotlight and, realising the significance of this, the three swimming talents were anxious to deliver on the high expectations.
"It’s fun racing the best in the world. It gets the best out of me, it gets the best out of them," Titmus said after the race. "I really hope all the hype lived up to the expectation. I really hope that I put on a good show tonight and everyone enjoyed it."
They did.
As Titmus touched the wall in a winning time of 3:57.49, she raised her fist in the air and the crowd roared its approval.
Katie Ledecky (bronze), Ariarne Titmus (gold) and Summer McIntosh (silver) — left to right — after their gripping race in the women's 400m freestyle final at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on 27 July in Paris, France.
With an audience sporting the Stars and Stripes as well as yellow jerseys — plus the occasional plush kangaroo being waved in the air — it was clear where the spectators' allegiances stood. Competing in front of packed stands at the Olympic Games once again, the swimmers were eager to deliver.
It was a nerve-wracking night for all, so much so that Titmus first headed for the wrong lane. After dropping off her things near Lane 4, it was not until the Australian got a friendly nudge from Ledecky that she realised she should be in Lane 5.
"I had to tell her, yeah, you're in Lane 5," Ledecky said. "She was freaking out and I didn't want her to feel bad or anything. I joked with her before the medals — 'you're getting a little comfortable there in Lane 4'. But that was no big deal."
Once in her lane, however, Titmus’ focus never strayed.
While the Australian fell short of her world record time of 3:55.38, she dominated the race, leading from start to finish. When at last she touched the wall after a gruelling 400m, the defending Olympic champion swiped off her pink goggles and waved to the stands, her bright yellow nails popping against the blue-water backdrop.
"I’m relieved more than anything," Titmus said of her feelings after the race. "I probably felt the pressure for this race more than anything in my life to be honest. And I’m definitely good at handling the pressure, but I’ve definitely felt it. The Olympics is different. It’s not like anything else. It’s not about how fast you go. It’s about getting your hand on the wall first. So I'm really happy to have done that tonight."
With her third career Olympic gold medal, Titmus's victory made her one of the most decorated swimmers ever in the women's 400m freestyle. Only one woman, the USA's Martha Norelius, has won two gold medals in this event, the first of hers also coming at an Olympic Games in Paris, albeit a century ago.
For Titmus, this was a particularly significant accomplishment given her recent health scare and subsequent surgery to remove ovarian tumours a year before Paris 2024.
The first hugs were reserved for coach Dean Boxall before Titmus located her family and friends in the stands — easy to spot in their "Team Titmus" T-shirts — and rushed over to receive their congratulations.
As she admitted later, the Olympic stage, with the spotlight of the "race of the century," still felt surreal despite her hefty four-medal haul from Tokyo 2020.
"I can’t believe that’s me, to be honest," Titmus said. "I look at myself and I’m so normal. I love swimming, and I love getting out and representing my country and having fun. I hope nobody looks at me any differently. I’m just the same old goofy Tassie (Tasmanian) girl out here living out her dream.
"I hope it goes to show, anyone can do what they want to do if they work hard and believe in themselves. And here I am, from little old Launie (Launceston), a town of 90,000, and I’m out here living the dream, so I hope that inspired kids back home."
The 17-year-old McIntosh, the darling and face of Team Canada, was second to Titmus throughout the race and finished in 3:58.37 to claim her first Olympic medal. The teenager had come close with a fourth place in the same race at Tokyo 2020 at the age of 14.
"Going into tonight I really just wanted to put my best foot forward and race as hard as I could," McIntosh said. "Any time I get to race either of those girls it's an amazing opportunity and I learn so much. They push me to be better and make me put my best foot forward, so it was definitely a good race."
While McIntosh was a veritable threat from the start, Rio 2016 champion Ledecky needed 200m to find her stride.
She trailed both her Australian and Canadian rivals, as well as intermittently Australia’s Erika Fairweather and then USA’s Paige Madden, before getting into medal position at the 250m mark. Still far behind the two leaders, however, Ledecky only managed a 4:00.86 to complete her set of 400m freestyle medals with a bronze — her first bronze in an illustrious Olympic career that now counts 11 medals.
Climbing atop the Eiffel Tower-themed podium, it was clear Ledecky had been hoping for a different result, but the apparent gloom immediately faded away as she was handed a phone to take a selfie of her and her two biggest rivals with their medals.
"They told us before we walked out that they were going to hand us this phone," the USA swimmer later joked. "I guess they're doing this for all the medal ceremonies and I was joking with them [that] 'you're going to get the oldest person a phone to figure out how to open it up and click the right button?' But hopefully the photo turned out."
If it did not, with two more individual races to go, Ledecky still has plenty of chances to snap a shot worthy to be called the "selfie of the century."