“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. The age-old saying might seem to be an exaggeration until you come across names like Simone Biles, Suni Lee, and Ariarne Titmus. All these names are legends in their disciplines and have had their stories of bouncing back from situations when the masses wrote them off. While Biles and Lee recovered from ‘twisties’ and kidney complications, Titmus’ story is equally intriguing. 

With a total gold medal tally of 16 across all competitions, Titmus also holds the world records in the 200m and 400m women’s freestyle disciplines. While Titmus will be eyeing further glory in Paris, an unwanted diagnosis of a sore hip almost made her miss out on her Olympic dreams in Paris. 

Ariarne Titmus, grateful for timely diagnosis 

Ariarne Titmus was diagnosed with tumors in her ovary last year. Taking up an MRI scan to investigate a sore hip, Titmus and her team were not ready for the shock they were about to get. Soon after getting the update, Titmus immediately withdrew from competitive swimming and prepared to undergo surgery. And much to her good fortune, the surgery went smoothly, with the benign tumors removed successfully. However, this surprise diagnosis kind of saved her Paris Olympics bid as otherwise, it would have been too late. 

Reflecting on how an early diagnosis helped her sort things out, a grateful Titmus stated, “I’m so grateful we picked it up when we did. It was almost the perfect time to get it out. If I’d had the scan in February or March, it would have completely derailed my Olympics.” Her successful surgery paved the way for the Paris mission back on track. And showing a dominating comeback, Ariarne Titmus has already secured her place in France.

The Australian swimmer’s dominant comeback 

Ariarne Titmus made her comeback at the Queensland Championships back in December 2023. Having been out of the waters for a significant period, the rustiness was viable as she finished second, in what was a dominating return display. While Mollie O’Callaghan picked up the victory in 1:54.36s, Titmus was not far behind clocking 1:55.99s. But as the days drew closer, Titmus seemed to slowly come back to her elements. 

Competing in the Australian Olympic Trials, Ariarne Titmus made history. First, she almost broke her 400m freestyle world record after cruising to victory in what was a season’s best 3:55.44s. Titmus missed her record by a tantalizing 0.06s. While this was not enough, Titmus came back to avenge her loss in December against O’Callaghan in the 200m freestyle division.

Clocking an incredible timing of 1:52.23s, Titmus obliterated the world record, surpassing O’Callaghan’s 1:52.85s from Fukuoka. Thus, it is pretty evident that Ariarne Titmus is all set to set the pools in Paris on fire. Luckily for her, God made her hips ache as a blessing in disguise to further bolster her career in the future.