By Tom Decent
Reigning Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus has been put on notice ahead of this year’s Swimming World Championships and the 2024 Paris Olympics after losing her world record to Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh.
The women’s 400m freestyle final is already shaping as the most tantalising race of the Olympics in the pool, with Titmus, McIntosh and American legend Katie Ledecky set to battle for supremacy in the eight-lap dash.
Titmus won gold over Ledecky in a thrilling race at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
However, it was at last year’s Australian Swimming Championships that Titmus broke her first longcourse world record in a scintillating time of 3:56.40.
Titmus has spoken about the challenge of retaining her title in Paris and the latest news out of Canada will only motivate the Australian star and her coach Dean Boxall even more.
As far as statements go, they don’t come much louder.
McIntosh, who finished fourth behind Titmus and Ledecky in the 400m in Tokyo, has stunned the swimming world by clocking a time of 3:56.08 at the Canadian trials.
Her time was more than three-tenths of a second quicker than Titmus’ mark. For context, Titmus took 0.06 seconds off Ledecky’s mark, which had stood since the 2016 Olympics.
On that time alone, Titmus faces a mighty battle to make it back-to-back gold medals next year.
The trio will also feature at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka in late July.
It will serve as an important guide 12 months out from the world’s biggest sporting event.
Titmus famously pipped Ledecky at the 2019 World Championships to signal her arrival on the world stage. Two years later, she had an Olympic gold medal around her neck.
Contacted by the Herald, Titmus declined to comment on McIntosh’s new world record, but a representative for the Australian swimmer said she was “happy” for the rising Canadian star.
Titmus spoke earlier in the year about the pressure that would be associated with a second Olympics campaign.
Summer McIntosh and (inset) Ariarne Titmus.Credit:Getty
“It’s going to be a whole new level of pressure,” she told the Herald.
“Although there was a massive build-up to my race with Katie, I think I was still the underdog. I was going there as a first-time Olympian and Katie was the world record holder. Now as a well-known face around our country and people expecting me to perform … that’s going to be different.
“If I want to win, I’m going to have to learn to deal with pressure. It’s one thing to get to the top but it’s even harder to stay there.”
Kaylee McKeown is now the only Australian female, outside Paralympic disciplines, to hold an individual longcourse world record (100m and 200m backstroke).
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