Who is Ariarne Titmus: Australia's Ariarne Titmus just won her second gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the women's 200-metre freestyle on Wednesday. In doing so, she has set an Olympic record of 1:53.92. Prior to this, Titmus had had clinched gold in the women's 400m freestyle on July 26. In both her races, Titmus upset United States swimmer Katie Ledecky, a five-time gold medalist, who had never lost an Olympic final before this.
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20-year-old swimming sensation Titmus on Wednesday chased down seemingly unbeatable opponents and won the Olympic swimming gold in the 200m freestyle. Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey came in second, while Canada's Penny Oleksiak was placed third.
Who is Ariarne Titmus?
Titmus hails from Tasmania, a small island-state off the south coast of Australia. According to her profile on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics website, she began swimming at seven and earned the nickname "The Terminator" following her achievements. Titmus joined the Australian Dolphins Swim Team in 2016 and brought home a bronze medal in the women’s 4x200-meter freestyle relay from the 2017 World Championships a year later. She was only 16 and won her first international swimming medal. Titmus headed into the Tokyo race as favourite after setting the second-fastest 200m freestyle time in history at the Australian Olympic trials last month.
Titmus is the first Australian woman to complete in the 200m and 400m Olympic double since Shane Gould participated in the Munich 1972 Games.
The Australian had upset Ledecky to win the 400m freestyle at the 2019 world championships in Gwangju, Korea as well. She told Olympic Channel’s ‘Incoming Call that she was never "the most talented swimmer,” who never had any strength but "I got where I am because I trained really hard".
A huge fan of Rafael Nadal, Titmus has a total of 20 combined Olympic and world championship gold medals - most by any woman swimmer. She also holds world records in the 400-meter, 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle.
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Ledecky and Titmus are expected to face each other in the 800m freestyle on Saturday, and they will also be on opposite sides in the 4x200m relay.
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