Olympic gold medallist-turned Channel 7 pool deck commentator Ariarne Titmus can still remember the moment she truly believed she could conquer the world.
It was a week out from the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, her first major open international open meet, and she had been invited to a team swimming dinner on the top floor of the Q1 Tower in Surfers Paradise.
As she mingled with teammates and staff, her coach Dean Boxall pulled her aside for a one-on-one chat.
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“Dean took me to the window and we looked out at the entire coast line and he said to me: ‘Next week you’ll be the queen of the Gold Coast,” she said told Hamish McLachlan on Unfiltered with Ariarne Titmus, to be broadcast at 9.30pm on Seven and 7plus Sport on Wednesday.
“I think that was my first real taste of I think I have really got what it takes to take it to the world.
“I was just absolutely fearless and good things happen when you aren’t afraid of losing.”
Titmus went on to win three gold medals in the 400m and 800m freestyle and 4 x 200m freestyle on the Gold Coast as well as a silver medal in the 200m freestyle.
It launched her career as she would go on to win another four at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games four years later to go with four Olympic gold.
Wednesday’s Unfiltered episode will feature seven-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist and Seven’s swimming mixed zone reporter for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, Ariarne Titmus. Credit: Channel Seven/Unfiltered with Ariarne Titmus
After shocking the nation with her retirement last October, at 25, she is now entering the next chapter of her life as Seven’s swimming mixed zone reporter for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games that begin early Friday morning WST.
Titmus also opened up on her rivalry with American great Katie Ledecky.
“Going into the world championships in 2019 I thought I don’t think I can beat Katie, I don’t think I can win. But I think I can really pose a threat and have a real race and how fun would that be?” she told Unfiltered.
“And then I remembered doing my heat and I swam within a second of my personal best and did it so easy.
“No one else thought we could win and I thought ‘Maybe tonight’s the night’.
Ariarne Titmus opened up on her rivalry with Katie Ledecky. Credit: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
“It was the night and I ended up becoming world champion in the 400m for the first time, beating a woman that had never been beaten internationally before and it was a massive breakthrough.”
But then came a humbling moment, when Boxall wandered into the press conference where there were “more cameras and journos than I had ever seen”.
“Everyone is telling me how great I am which is something Dean would hate – and he walked into the back of the room and when he saw me, he saw my face light up with an I can’t wait to celebrate (look),” Titmus said.
“He walked to the back of the room beside a cameraman and started mouthing to me ‘Dogs..t, dogs..t, that was a dogs..t swim’. And I remember thinking ‘Are you serious, I just became world champion?’
“And we broke down the race and looked at how we went and there were a couple of things that were off … so a dog s..t swim.
“Method in the madness. I had just awoken the tiger. She (Ledecky) wasn’t going to lay down and rest on her laurels, just expecting to win the following year at the Olympic Games.
“I’d awoken the tiger so I could not become complacent. If anything I had to become more hungry.”
Titmus also revealed how a conversation with retired tennis great Ash Barty helped her make up her own mind her days in the pool were done.
“I couldn’t distinguish whether this was me just being burnt out or whether this was me having a feeling of ‘I’m done’,” Titmus said.
“What she told me was really what I was feeling. She was ready for the next part of her life. She felt content. She won the Australian Open and that is what she was gunning for.
“That is exactly what I felt. It pricked in my mind (that) ‘Maybe I am ready’ (for retirement).
“So I sat with it for a long time. I wanted to make sure it was the right move and she said something that stuck with me.
“She said to me ‘You want people to ask you why you’ve retired not when you’re retiring’.”
Unfiltered with Ariarne Titmus, airs 9.30pm Wednesday following The Front Bar on Seven and 7plus Sport.
