Four-time Olympic gold medallist Ariarne Titmus has announced her shock retirement from swimming, saying the seed was sewn by her cancer scare before the Paris Games.
The 25-year-old, who grew up in Tasmania, will retire as one of the greatest distance swimmers of all time.
“It’s a tough one but one that I’m really happy with,” she said in an Instagram video post.
“I’ve always loved swimming … but I guess I’ve taken this time away from the sport and realised some things in my life that have always been important to me are just a little bit more important to me now than swimming.”
Before the Paris Olympics, Titmus underwent surgery to remove two benign tumours after a large growth was found on her right ovary.
She described that health scare as a “turning point”.
“A turning point for me or a time when a switch was flicked was in the lead-up to the Paris Games, I went through some health challenges, which quite frankly really rocked me mentally.
“It probably was the first time where I considered some things outside of swimming.
“Delving more into those health challenges, I’ve really had to look within and think about what’s most important to me and 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 realised that those goals and what I want in my future is now more important to me.”
“But more than anything, I’m excited for what’s next.”
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At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Titmus achieved an historic third individual Olympic gold medal, winning the 400m freestyle in the race dubbed ‘the race of the century’, where she defeated the other two previous world record-holders of this event – American all-time great Katie Ledecky and Canadian swimming prodigy Summer McIntosh.
In doing so, Titmus became the first Australian athlete since Dawn Fraser in 1964 to win back-to-back gold medals in the same event.
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Titmus credited Ledecky with pushing to become a champion athlete, naming her 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when she edged the 400m world record-holder, as her greatest achievement.
“There’s nothing like the first, Tokyo going in as what was deemed the underdog, but I knew in myself I could win and to come from behind and win in Tokyo against the GOAT, that feeling will sit with me forever,” she said.
“To win Olympic gold, it just didn’t have to be the best in the world I had to beat the greatest ever in the world 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 facing Katie, I wouldn’t have been the athlete that I am.”
Titmus, who was named Tasmania’s 2025 Young Australian of the Year, steps away from the sport as the current 200m world record-holder, having won a staggering haul of 33 international medals including eight Olympic medals (four gold, three silver and one bronze) and four world titles.
She said she is hoping to work more in broadcasting and doing public speaking as well as giving back to swimming, particularly working with young athletes who are from regional areas.
