Ariane Titmus, the tumor at 23 years old and the return to the Olympics: “Before swimming, I thought about the possibility of becoming a mother in the future”

The first time in a swimming pool it cannot remember it directly, however it tells it as if that feeling had never changed. «I think I went to the water for the first time to 5 or 6 months with my father. Swimming is a large part of Australian culture »he explains Ariane Titmusa life linked to the Olympic games. It was born in September 2000 when the Sidney Olympics were about to begin in her Australia and was struck by swimming 8 years later when Federica Pellegrini wins gold in Beijing in the 200 freestyle, On the bulletin board it has 4 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze at the games. «I started swimming at a competitive level at 7 years. I remember correctly to have looked at those games in those days, in which our team was very successful. It has been swimming since then, practically all my sight »Add the Australian athlete that we meet in Madrid to the Laureus World Sports Awards, where he was a candidate for the best return to sport of the year.

Your feeling in water?
«Very difficult to describe it: it is like being able to forget about the rest of the world. The feeling of being without weight you have in the water is not replicable elsewhere in life. For me, however, the feeling of speed in the water is also special. It takes years to get the fastest in the world, but the sensation of synergy with water is beautiful ».

Has see the Beijing Olympics was fundamental?
«The Olympics have always been a fundamental goal for me. The idea of ​​the Olympics. I wanted to be an Olympic athlete and in adolescence I understood that I could get there. Winning gold has always been to my head. Since childhood the goal was that, even if I didn’t know how hard it was, but perhaps the unbelievation makes you the journey positive because you continue to chase and climb the mountain every day. It takes years of work, but not knowing the whole path makes it more feasible ».

Do you swim for yourself, against yourself or against the opponents?
«I have always swam to bring out the best from myself. First of all obviously because I love this sport. I love swimming and I love competition. I also love the satisfactions that come from training. I have always competed because I know I have a lot to give this sport. Certainly along the path opponents meetings that bring out the best of you in the competition. If there were no rivals, someone to pursue in sport, would not become the best version of yourself as athletes. Obviously my workouts were made so that they could face the same day, one day, Katie Ledecky that has always been the reference. But never the goal of my work was to beat it, only that the only way to win was overcome it ».

Have your two Olympics have been different from each other?
“Absolutely. Tokyo was my first Olympics and I didn’t really know what to expect. And then they were the games without public due to Covid. To see them again, if there had been the public, they would have been perfect games given the results. Going to the games from Underdog, not favored, is better than going with all eyes on them. It was mentally easier to go to win my first gold without fear and without knowing what was waiting for me. Paris had the audience who created an unrepeatable atmosphere, but on me there was a pressure that I had never tried. Was Very Different for Many Different Reasons. One, it was a Lot More EnjoyAble with the Crowd That Created Incredible Atmosphere But the Pressure I Felt to Perform Was Like Nothing I’ve Ever Felt. What I had passed in the previous months made me get there with doubts that I had never had in my career: I didn’t know if I had done enough ».

In the months before the Olympics he discovered that he had a benign tumor on the ovaries.
“I discovered it casually. I took exams for an hip injury and making a total pelvic ultrasound, doctors identified this tumor in my ovaries. They didn’t know how great it was, but I knew that one of the greatest goal of my life was to become, one day, mother. I love my sport and I love to win, but I am equally convinced that there is nothing in life as much as to become a mother and have a family. I immediately wanted to know everything, we did several tests. Fortunately, it was a benign tumor, but almost 9 centimeters in diameter ».

The doubt was whether or not to operate immediately or not?
«For the health of the ovaries the best thing was to remove it and this put me in front of my greatest fear. I had to decide. He could stay there, but he could put my reproductive health at risk. Did my sports career come before? And if leaving the tumor there had made it more complicated for me to become a mother? I have never had the doubt about what to do. I operated and said I would think after swimming. I thought about my health as a person, I gave time to my body to recover. I went back to training as before after three months and it is a very long period when there is little left at the Olympics. I entrusted the previous training years and I had confidence in myself. I came out a better person. I thought everything happens for a reason. Things happen in life to test yourself. What happened to me brought out my part of the wrestler. Sometimes you have to fall and I am very proud of how I did the Paris Olympics ».