Ariarne Titmus has helped prepare for an Olympic showdown by swimming the second-fastest 400m freestyle in history to open the Australian trials for the Paris Games.
Titmus clocked 3 minutes and 55.44 seconds, missing her world record by six hundredths in Brisbane. She was 39 hundredths below her world record pace at 350 meters.
“(Coach) Dean (Boxall) texted me this afternoon saying you’re free as a bird,” she said on Australia’s Nine network. “So I had a free pass. I knew that if I did my job tonight, I would go to Paris. The pressure is also a little bit off. As long as I do my job, I will be fine. So it was It’s more a chance for me to practice my race plan and see how it would go. But it doesn’t matter what happens here, what matters is what happens in six weeks.”
Titmus, the reigning Olympic and world champion in the 400 meters free, now owns five of the seven best times in history.
In March 2023, then 16-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh took Titmus’ world record. Four months later, Titmus got him back at the world championships.
Katie Ledecky, Rio’s Olympic gold medalist in the event, held the world record from 2016 until Titmus broke it for the first time in 2022.
Ledecky will attempt to qualify for Paris during the first night event of the US Olympic Trials on Saturday in Indianapolis, live on NBC, NBCOlympics.com and Peacock.
Also Monday, Kaylee McKeown won the 200-meter individual medley in 2:06.63, becoming the third-fastest player in history.
The only faster swimmers in history are Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu (2:06.12, 2:06.58) and American Ariana Kukors (2:06.15)
McKeown swam the world’s best time in almost eight years in an event where American Kate Douglass is the two-time reigning world champion.
“You never know what can happen, the Americans will be there next week (at the U.S. Olympic Trials),” McKeown said. “So I’m just going to put my best foot forward, and hopefully my footing will be better in Paris.”
McKeown is the reigning Olympic and world champion and world record holder in the 100 meters and 200 meters backstroke.
She took silver in the IM of 200 meters at the 2022 World Cup, after which she was disqualified after her semi-final at the 2023 World Cup due to an illegal turn.
In Paris, the women’s 200m IM semi-finals will take place approximately 50 minutes after the women’s 200m back final on August 2.
Kate Douglass used different strokes to swim successfully
Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Kate Douglass is now the most versatile swimmer in the world.
