SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side.
Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers which Ariarne Titmus swim stands out to them as her best:
Question: What was the best performance of Ariarne Titmus‘ career?
RESULTS
- Fukuoka 2023 400 free (Reclaims WR in Ledecky/McIntosh battle) – 35.7%
- Tokyo 2021 400 free (Olympic showdown with Ledecky) – 27.7%
- Paris 2024 400 free (Olympic repeat) – 10.9%
- Gwangju 2019 400 free (Dethroning Ledecky) – 10.4%
- 2024 AUS Trials 200 free (1:52.23 WR) – 10.1%
- Tokyo 2021 200 free (Completes Olympic double) – 5.2%
Last week, superstar Ariarne Titmus surprised the swimming and Australian sporting worlds when she announced her retirement from the sport at the young age of 25.
Although Titmus has taken a unique approach to racing over the last four years, opting to sit out of key competitions such as the 2022 and 2025 World Championships to prioritize giving herself a post-Olympic break, her retirement announcement came as a big surprise. She had said the 2028 Olympics were part of her plans as recently as late January, but with nothing left to prove in the sport, she’s opted to move on.
Immediately after Titmus’ announcement, we put up a new A3 Performance Poll asking SwimSwam readers which performance of her career stood out as her best.
Given Titmus’ stacked resume that includes four Olympic gold medals, a pair of massive 400 free world title victories and multiple world record performances, it wasn’t easy to whittle down the list, but we picked six that really stood out and kept it strictly to individual swims.
Titmus had several monumental battles with Katie Ledecky during her career, but at the 2023 World Championships, their duel turned into a three-way showdown with Summer McIntosh, who stole Titmus’ world record in the 400 free earlier that year at the Canadian Trials.
The hype was intense for the women’s 400 free final at the 2023 Worlds, but Titmus turned it into a lopsided affair, winning gold and reclaiming the world record in a time of 3:55.38, with Ledecky a distant runner-up in 3:58.73. New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather (3:59.59) snagged the bronze medal over McIntosh (3:59.94), who added nearly four seconds from her world record swim in March (3:56.08).
That race came out on top in the poll with 35.7% of votes, as it had a bit of everything–Titmus delivering a dominant performance, outduelling her rivals in a pressure-packed environment, and breaking a world record.
The clear #2 option in the poll was the Tokyo Olympic final in the 400 free, which marked the first Olympic showdown between Titmus and Ledecky after Titmus upset her at the 2019 World Championships in the 400 free.
Ledecky, the defending champion in the 400 free at the time, delivered her fastest swim in the event since setting the world record at the 2016 Olympics (3:56.46) in 3:57.36, but Titmus outduelled her on the big stage, clocking 3:56.69 for the second-fastest swim ever and a new Commonwealth, Oceanian and Australian Record.
The next three options in the poll were very close, all between 10 and 11%, led by the Paris Olympic 400 free final, which saw Titmus successfully defend her Olympic title over McIntosh and Ledecky.
The 2019 World Championship 400 free final, when Titmus ended Ledecky’s run of three straight world titles in the 400 free with a massive upset, and the 2024 Australian Olympic Trials 200 free final, where Titmus shattered the world record in a time of 1:52.23, a mark that still stands today, also received over 10% of votes in the poll.
Trailing with just over 5% of votes was the 200 free final at the Tokyo Olympics, which saw Titmus become just the fourth woman to complete the 200/400 free double at the Games, joining Debbie Meyer, Shane Gould and Ledecky.
Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks: What’s the best female competitive rivalry in the sport?
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ABOUT A3 PERFORMANCE
The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner.
If SwimSwam is doing an interview with Dean anytime soon, would love to hear his thoughts on Arnie’s retirement and her achievements, and ‘what could have been’. It felt like she could still be not at her peak yet, with her still swimming best times in the past 1-2 years. But of course motivation is a huge part of the picture and if that’s not there anymore then we can’t say much else. But it would still be nice to imagine!
Definitely one of the greatest, if not the greatest, female 400m/200m swimmers of all time.
Sadly, for Summer, she will never get to beat Titmus at the next Olympics which would have been almost inevitable.
Summer never quite rose to the occasion against Titmus and I’m sure she would have loved to have put that right.
Swimmers peak in their late teens and early twenties so I think it was the right decision.
I don’t think Titmus loved swimming the way Ledecky does , for example.
Titmus retires as a champion that never lost to the greatest middle distance swimmer of all time, Ledecky, over 400m or potentially the greatest of all time coming up behind her. That’s remarkable
Calling Ariarne Titmus “one of the greatest if not the greatest” 200m Freestylers of all-time is what can make a true swim fan mad about Titmus hype. Titmus won one 200m Free race internationally in her entire career, at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. She won 0 World Championships in the event. By contrast, Fede Pellegrini also won one Olympic gold in the 200 Freestyle, but also won 4 World Championship gold medals in the event and hit the World Championship podium another 4 times in the 200 Free, Pellegrini also won 4 European Championships in the event. That is sustained excellence in the event, something that Titmus never demonstrated.
I think Eric meant 200-400 swimmer, not that she was (one of the) greatest 200 swimmer ever.
I feel that the fact she is the current 200FR WR holder should perhaps be given some consideration no??
Well the one i remember most was the Dean Boxall one…
Her best swim in absolutely the 1:52.23 WR
Did people see that race?
And how she annihilated 1 year old MOC WR which in itself broke 14 yo Pellegrini rubber suit WR.
I maintain that 1:52.23 is underrated. If MOC doesn’t break it, it will stand for a while.
I was in the stands for the 200 free double WR and it is probably the best race I’ve ever seen in my life.
But in historic terms I voted for the Fukuoka 400 free. It’s pretty rare for someone to lose a WR and then take it back (I can only think of 2-3 examples off the top of my head), and Titmus had basically been written off before the meet started.
What I find most interesting is that in her entire career, Titmus only raced healthy in a total of 2 LCM World Championships (she was sick in Budapest 2017) and 2 Olympics and won just five individual event races, one of which came against Ledecky who was sick (in the Gwangju 400 Free race) and two were against a swimmer (McIntosh) who is five years junior to Titmus but who has now already won more than twice the number of major individual event LCM races than Titmus. Yet Titmus retires saying she accomplished everything she could in the sport?
Why do you care? Multiple Olympic individual golds, multiple individual world champs golds, multiple individual world records, multiple relay golds and multiple relay world records.
There’s nothing left to do other than just repeating achievements. She’s retiring happy
Lol.
Oly gold and WRs. Where does one go from there?
I’m impressed with longevity, but we can’t all be Katie. Or Mick Jagger.
Sheesh! Tough crowd!
“Yet Titmus retires saying she accomplished everything she could in the sport?”
1. She is the 8th most successful female swimmer at the Olympics in terms of individual medals.
2. She broke both 200 and 400 free WR.
3. She won 200 and 400 Olympic gold
4. She defended 400 Olympic title.
5. She won double 400 Worlds title
Yes, she has accomplished everything she could in the sport.
Out of the current active female swimmers, Only Ledecky, McKeown, and Summer accomplished more.
Have to put MOC way ahead of Titmus in terms of active swimmers who have accomplished more, MOC has 18 World Championship LCM medals, shows up with no excuses, and she beat Titmus at Olympics. Titmus got the Boxall and Channel 9 hype in AUS, but obviously McKeown and McKeon also ahead of her in AUS pantheon. I actually think that, all-time, in terms of impact on the sport I even put Simone Manuel and Lilly King ahead of her. I think Titmus just saw no path to any more individual Olympic gold, and lacked the fire to undergo the crucible of a few more years of Boxall antics.
McIntosh never touched Titmus in the 400 or 200.
Titmus never have quite the range of a McIntosh or Ledecky and she emerged later, so her medal potential was lower.
Also, Titmus was competing against Ledecky in her prime over 800.
In another time Titmus may have been the 200,400 and 800 champion
Oh it’s you, the vote-manipulating Titmus-hater!
Two can play that game.
I voted for 2023 but 2019 was extremely important. Titmus didn’t want to go into Tokyo without knowing she could beat Ledecky.
10.1% had the correct answer.
going into the “race of the century” and crushing your competition including taking back the WR from one of them is a legendary race.
Especially when both of your top competitors are considered generational talents.
Agree.
But that 200m WR was….er….legendarier.
That last 50 in that 200m was the most exciting thing I’d seen in the pool in as long as I can remember
AGREED