As if it wasn’t already certain, Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus has cemented her place in history after defending her 400m freestyle gold medal in what is being called the “race of the century”.
The Tassie golden girl was up against rivals Katie Ledecky (USA) and Summer McIntosh (Canada) in the final at the Paris le Defense Arena on Sunday morning. But despite being up against two of the world’s best 400m swimmers, Titmus made it look like it was never a competition — finishing almost a full second before McIntosh.
Titmus finished with a time of 3mins 57.49secs, which isn’t even close to her world record — but it turns out it didn’t matter because she got the job done. I imagine her coach Dean Boxall is somewhere celebrating even harder than he did at Tokyo 2020.
“The girls threw everything at me. I’m really happy to go and defend my title,” she said after the race.
For those playing along at home, this means that Titmus now has THREE Olympic gold medals to her name at just 23 years of age, after she sinched the 200m and 400m in Tokyo.
“Oh my legs are a bit tired, but I’m just relieved more than anything,” she said.
“I probably felt the expectation and pressure for this race more than anything in my life to be honest and I’m pretty good at handling the pressure but I’ve definitely felt it.
“I’m just happy to get the result for myself and I feel so honoured to be a part of the race and be alongside legends like Katie.”
Despite being just one WEEK old when Sydney 2000 kicked off, Titmus has already cemented her position in sporting immortality.
If Titmus racing the literal race of the century wasn’t enough to get you tumbling out of the bed and stumbling to the kitchen pouring yourself a cup of ambition, the Aussies across the board absolutely smashed it in the wee hours of Sunday morning to put us top of the medal table with three golds and two silvers.
Four medals — two silver and two gold — came from the pool, with the women’s 4x 100m freestyle relay team securing the gold, while the men’s 4x 100m freestyle relay team and Elijah Winnington (400m freestyle) sinched the silver.
But Australia’s first gold medal of Paris 2024 came from Grace Brown in the women’s individual time trial road cycling — marking her first ever Olympic medal after she narrowly missed out on bronze at Tokyo 2020.
Huge morning for Australia, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll be waking up early to catch all the action on Channel 9 and 9Now.
The post Ariarne Titmus Defends Gold In ‘Race Of The Century’ & I’m Celebrating Harder Than Her Coach RN appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
