2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
- Full aquatics schedule
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The world went wild during the women’s 400m freestyle final on day 2 when Australia’s Ariarne Titmus got to the wall ahead of defending Olympic champion Katie Ledecky of the United States. Titmus hit the wall in a mighty mark of 3:56.69 to top the podium in one of the most anticipated races of this competition. That time edged out Ledecky who touched in 3:57.36, with the former handing the latter her first Olympic loss in an individual event.
As excited as Titmus was, to say her St. Peters Western coach Dean Boxall was ecstatic was an understatement. The man’s enthusiastic jumping, dancing and passionate yelling quickly went viral, shining a light on the special relationship existing between this athlete and coach which transcends the pool.
Now that her Olympic gold has finally hit home, Titmus commented on how quickly her coach’s celebration has come to the forefront of the Olympic news.
“That’s just the way Dean is,” she explained. “He’s very passionate about what he does – he really becomes quite animated,” she told The Guardian.
“This is just as much for him as it is for me,” she said. “He has sacrificed a lot in his family life, his kids and his wife, for his job. He puts 100% into being a swimming coach. I would not be here without him.”
Boxall himself conveyed his emotion, stating, “I can’t help it. I bleed with my athletes. When they leave the pool deck with me – whether I’m having a chat with them for an hour if it has to be – but when they leave, they have to start the recovery process and go home. They switch off; I don’t. I go home and dream for them. I go home and try and find a way for them to get better.
“I just don’t turn off,” Boxall told The Guardian. “That’s probably why I let it out, why I got emotional. It’s not just a 9-5 job; it’s 24/7. I wake up at night and I’m thinking of how can Arnie get better, how can Mitch [Larkin] get better, how can Elijah [Winnington] get better.”
Specific to Titmus’ remarkable 400m free performance, Boxall said, “I’ve been with [Titmus] for five years. Having a dream together. Katie [Ledecky] was so far in front of us that in the beginning when I started to coach her I couldn’t even have this conversation. When Arnie came to me she was a 4.12 [in the 400m]. At that stage Katie went 3.56. That’s 16 seconds. We just started chipping away, we started to believe.”
Titmus is the top-seeded swimmer heading into the women’s 200m free final.
These critical comments makes me think you all have been locked in the swimming cult/cocoon oblivious to the coaching passion exhibited in the big sports world.
Ledecky got out swam and outcoached…sbe wasn’t prepared well for the World Championship, nor was she for the Olympics. and your taking it out /criticizing a coach in ways you wouldn’t if it was an American coach.
I haven’t seen an American swim coach hump a barrier.
Ledecky went her 2nd fastest swim . Janet Evans reign came to an end as will Katie’s. It has nothing to do with being out coached.
Definitely more to there relationship than meets the eye
Titmus seems to know a lot about the kids and wife.
I loved his celebration. We need more emotion like this in our sport. Concern is that this level of enthusiasm can also be dangerous. Not saying this is the case here. If you have 100 coaches do this type of celebration I guarantee there are a few bad apples who should not be around young athletes who can be scarred permanently. For the good ones, I say congratulations on their success.
You can be an exceptional coach with the deep knowledge and understanding of tiny nuances of your profession but if you unlucky to meet YOUR swimmer nobody will may never know about your talent. I think that without this coach Ariarna Titmus wouldn’t push herself that hard to her success. And his emotionally tense behavior can be a significant factor in their relationships. So let’s this coach to celebrate the way he can.
BTW he was in tears as well. Why nobody tells about that. How many coaches do you know who will react such a way on his pupil achievements? I know only one – Bruce Gemmell in Rio.
Meeting Ariarne Titmus was a life-time luck for… Read more »
He’s at SPW.
Getting Ariarne was once in a life time luck he can expect 2-3 shots at per Olympic cycle.
Get over it. It was hilarious and probably is the best thing that’s happened to swimming PR in a while.
I think it’s important to remember that athletes and coaches can be passionate about what they do without behaving like this also.
Boxall is obviously a very good if not great coach, but the way he behaves on deck is not really a part of that.
Basically agree, but one small quibble. Titmus swam in incredible race, and beat Ledecky, but did not beat her “legacy.” Nothing can take away from what Ledecky has accomplished so far in her career. In fact, it should only add to Ledecky’s legacy that at age 24 she was able to be only a second off her lifetime best in the 400; to my knowledge, no other WR-holding female distance swimmer has ever done that.
400 event was the last one where Katie Ledecky broke somebody else’s world record. Titmus was lucky knowing that 3:56 is humanly reachable. Ledecky had only Pellegrin’s 3:59 suit record as a target. Should under 3:56 was a target I have know doubts it would be achieved in Rio. 5 years later it’s much harder to do. But she was only 0.9 sec away from her best. With a right coaching programme and right focusing under 3:56 is reachable to her. But I’m not sure that such fan’s dreams are of great importance to her. Her life is significantly different now than it was 5 years ago and she may have more important things to do in her current life.
Titmus thanked Ledecky for getting Titmus to where she is today the 400 Olympic champion, with a time no-one thought anyone would get near for a few years.
Boxall & Titmus said it will take a WR (or very near it) to beat Lecdky.
Ian Thorpe on Australian TV called Titmus beating the greatest female swimmer of all time.
Australians have the greatest respect for Ledecky.
Some fans here still cannot acknowledge Titmus & the great effort she & her coach put in, sad!!!!
It’s hard to keep discussion with the person who is so aggressive as you are. But i’ll try. There is no disrespect to Titmus in my post. And if you see it there then you will find it in any my words no matter what they are about.
Do you know why I wanted Jacoby to win gold medal yesterday? Because I had enough of King’s arrogance.
Do you know why I disliked Titmus when she just emerged as a strong competitive swimmer? Because the first thing that she stated publicly, that she will be very generous leaving for Ledecky just 1500 event because it’s to boring to her.
Do you know what 15 years old Ledecky… Read more »
well said
As I expected and predicted,
YOZHIK will trash Titmus.
That’s what he’s always done since 2012.
If he imagine a swimmer would have remote possibility to “reduce” Ledecky greatness, he’ll attack that swimmer mercilessly.
YOZHIK previous attack targets:
Missy Franklin, Sarah Sjostrom, Katinka Hosszu, Li Bingjie
Laurie lawrence get out of this body!