INTERVIEW | Ariarne Titmus

[Music] the ash ly and Susie O'Neal podcast so excited we' got Arian Titus in the room yeah I don't forgotten how many medals You've Won you won like trillions of medals oh good oh yeah so um okay I want to say my I loved watching you swim it's the most I've been into swimming for ages um the fact that you backed up the 400 freestyle nuts nuts amazing and then all the other things on top of it how are you feeling first sleep in the bed last night I I feel pretty um happy to be home to be honest I'm so tired I've just been on like the biggest Whirlwind um stayed in Melbourne for the footy um on the weekend love yeah love it and then um came back yesterday to brzy so how long ago was it that you left Brisbane pre Olympics I think it has to be nearly 10 weeks yeah so we were away I think all up for the Olympic campaign just over 8 weeks and then I obviously stayed oh maybe it's about N9 weeks nine weeks I was away that's a stint God how was it staying with the team for so long long before the Olympics like you were was it five weeks with the team yeah it was pretty good to be honest cuz we just kind of stayed in our coaching groups and they made it pretty easy like they it didn't really feel like training camp as such it just kind of felt like normal and then they kept the meetings and that thing to a minimal but then once we kind of got closer to competition that's when it started to feel like very real when did the uh the the the largest block of your training um occur was it is it this year like have you worked harder this year than you have like sort of this time last year or how long has how long has the really intense training block gone for I think it's the same every year like you have the same structure but I think the last 12 months there's just more importance on getting everything right because if you're not prioritizing your training in the year out from the Olympics you don't want to leave anything to chance so I think there was more sessions where if I wasn't hitting my times mentally start to question yourself and your confidence doesn't build so it's more about trying to do everything right in the last 12 months but in terms of the training schedule and the Cs and everything it's pretty much the same every year I guess yeah what's the main thing you say to yourself in your head um during a hard set I don't know I actually kind of love it I'm so weird I know I know you are that's why I'm curious to know what goes on ahead of yours um you love P you love training yeah I just see how much I can get out of myself and I think I definitely some of those um really tough tough sessions you're in a battle with yourself mentally for sure but um it's about that like pushing past that point I think you can get past the pain point where it almost goes onto the other side where it kind of feels good again it's hard to describe but yeah wow that's such an interesting inside and is that is that um cuz that feeling whatever that is and I think you don't have to be an Olympic champion to know like uh that you want to stop you know what I mean if I go for a run and I'm running fast it's like I want to stop or if I'm swimming and it's like in me I want to stop and quite often I do yeah but you like on a daily basis are you pushing through that and finding some other level of enjoyment that exists beyond the pain and the willingness to stop you definitely can't do it every day but it's certain points and certain sessions where you want to really get something out of it or the really tough ones like sometimes we've got like sessions that are 5 km of hard work and there might be 100 easy in there and so it's those sessions that you're trying to really grind and get the best out of yourself just like I mean with that with your coach like um the way you must be so tough in that way because he can extract things from you that other swimmers you probably wouldn't do right like he can say you come on you that time was the fourth fastest in the world this year than yeah he say that and you responded that whereas other athletes could fall in a heat if you did that so that that's an interesting Dynamic to to know what he how he can push the buttons he can push with you or more importantly the ones he can't push yeah it's like a bit of reverse psychology I think I think maybe he's mellowed with me a little bit as I've gotten older I think when I was a baby I'd just do everything he said and he just like you know stamp me down and i' just be like okay but um now I think it's more of a collaborative approach and and I um can provide him with some knowledge and um vice versa but he still pretty tough like um if I get a good job I've done a a great job so um but from him yeah from him but it's funny like now it's all done and dusted like he just deems such a person ality Beyond swimming coaching that um when he's coaching me at the pool yeah he has that Persona that tough Coach and he's very hard on me but as soon as the session's done he is just totally himself with me and we we joke and we um have fun and laugh so it's it's a it's a different like Dynamic were you happy with his uh performance that he put on pide with I'm being serious like in comparison to what we've seen him going like berserk in to do you think that he's like he held a little back we do you think well he doesn't like that people talk about it because I mean Susie you would know like that's just the way he is like he even said to me for my 800 final he said to me I think I'm going to watch it on TV and not out in the crowd I said why he said because I don't want them to see me he's like I cuz he can't help it and I like no like this is my last race at these Olympics I was like can you watch it live so then he went and found like tried to find a little hey place but um I guess that's just totally totally him but you know what the funny thing was I watched the replay back with the 400 and I saw where he was standing I was like oh my gosh and the people next to him were some of macintosh's parents oh were they one of your competitors in theace and I was like oh no what were you saying he goes no no they weren't you're right though he doesn't he doesn't want the attention does he that's how he is I've been to some of your training sessions and he's he's kind of like that on the pool deck I want to talk to you about your 4003 that you defended the title um over in Paris when you walked out behind behind the block you you put your clothes in a in a in a basket or whatever a box what about that you put your clothes accidentally in in um Katie accidentally in adverted Comm the your biggest competition obviously um you know has won that event before um yeah she won it in Rio yeah before and you put it in her basket so what what was with what happened well I want to put it it was totally an accident I was you know when you're just waiting you come out and you're in your Zone and you're just you know not really thinking about anything it sounds really bad but like I just looked at like that lane forward chair and thought that was the spare one usually in Lane that'll be for me and I didn't even see that like Lane five was free next to me and then I was put my stuff in the box and she just comes over and goes uh Annie that's my lane and I was like I felt so bad because like I didn't want to psycher out or anything and also if we had a summ ined the wrong Lanes we both would have got dced so that just would have been a disaster totally not on purpose and then the funny thing was we went to the metal ceremony room and we were joking heaps about it she's like so you do talk to her yeah we talk all the time yeah and she was like it's okay I get it she goes we're we're both pretty used to Lan for oh God and you didn't look nervous at all before you races were you not nervous no I I was more nervous honestly like the 2 3 days prior I was more nervous about um well I went off Instagram and everything cuz everything was just starting to get quite a lot and I was like this is just not good for me I just went off at earlier than I thought I would like positive messages like of support yeah but too much positive can like have the opposite effect because think about every time someone says to you can't wait to see you win and then you actually start to realize oh my God what if I don't win um so I was just like I don't want to see any of it and I was qu feeling quite nervous then but then once I got into racing um and I went out for the heat I was like oh this is I'm fine like this is going to be great and then I was just um yeah I just loved it like the walking out to the crowd like looking up you could see people into the sky like it just you have to embrace it and lap it up good atmosphere was it a great atmosphere oh it it was Unreal I think what was it 17,000 and it was packed every session I remember my first 400 the heat they were cheering at like the 250 Mark in the 400 heat I was thinking why are they cheering like what's going on but they were just loving it so yeah it was pretty cool and you can actually hear that you can draw on that is just yeah in in an enclosed Stadium like that where the it was packed you could definitely hear it do you Reon the American sorry so the Americans are and I think this is great I spoke to your old man about this like I think like swimming is our number one Olympic sport right like most popular for you know viewers and everything like that most successful too and most successful obviously like to to give that the biggest possible particularly for Brisbane 2032 the biggest possible crowd like you as in we had our uh Olympic trials at Chandler yeah like the Americans had it in Indianapolis and an NFL stadium with like I don't know how many they were getting record crowds over 20,000 every night uh La at Sofi Stadium which is 38,000 for the 38,000 even Indianapolis I think gret and world world record that noise that's watching on YouTube is like more than I've heard at any sport level and any swimming before like and I said to your dad like when he came in from my Olympic podcast I like man sunor Stadium I know like it's it's if they can make it work for swimming and your dad's like it's got to be warm-up pools and and I get that they can do that yeah well that's about the same Sun's about the same size as um L defense where we had the SAA in Paris they basically just like cut the stadium in half and have the warm up out the back and the stadium out the front so they could do that or they can just build a great pool or they can or they could do that as well it'll be a bit cold at Sun court because the brisban Olympics will be around now so well they might want an indoor pool to get good okay I'm just saying I think that the we should have the biggest crowd CU then people can brisban can actually go watch it yeah it'll be it'll be the number one can watch it as well if you have it's only corporates and that can end up getting there anyway that's what I think now what do you do now like like do you take a break for like an extended period I guess and that's is that a difficulty you know sus knows better than anyone I mean like how long can you stay out of the pool before you start well I think when you're younger you think breaks are bad things and then when you get older you realize breaks are the best things I've swam my best I can't have coming off a big break so I've got four years I'm going to take as long as I need I I mean obviously physically I need a rest but I think more than anything mentally I just need to switch off so just I'll keep fit definitely I'm a very routined person so um I'll stay in the gym and keep Pilates and stuff or what do you do yeah well I want to get more into running I'll probably still go for a float every now and then in the water but I just wanted to do a bit of me time um stay away from that high pressure environment and I've allowed myself um 12 months if I need it but um just basically when I feel like the hunger's built back up and I want to go back I'll go back and speaking of building up and this is just purely from an aesthetic point of you having you know followed your career as many of us has uh from Tokyo to now it looks aesthetically at least that you you've put on so much strength and muscle like was that something that you said I need more strength or how did that come about where physically you've been able to build your body up so much it was actually off the back of my break from Tokyo I came back and my swimming was so light and easy but the strength work I was doing was really challenging and I just put muscle on so quickly I think I put on between 3 and 4 kilos of muscle in the first 6 months I was back in training which is crazy but I stripped a little bit off I Pro of it off I probably put on a bit too much but I definitely think I found that perfect pow weight ratio I just feel like imp Paris my body comp and my strength um was just perfect I had so much more strength than what I did in Tokyo but I felt like I didn't you know didn't look like the The Hulk um no no no but you look strong just physically strong yeah I was proud of that actually I think swimmers have got a lot have got a lot more musly than they used to be when I swm for example Katie Lei who you compete against I mean she does look like the Hulk she does look in a good way yeah she does look muscle L of she's not green she's very musly for a distance swimmer yeah a lot of the distance swimmers now don't look like distance swimmers yeah I hope you didn't hear that I mean that wasn't was a compliment no I I get it because it wasn't something like um like if you were swimming n so like 20 years ago there wasn't as much no emphasis on the physical strength no and not even our gym programs were like what you guys do now you know I think there's a lot more science background and and one other thing just CU you're so structured so disciplined like all swimmers are just like um incredible athletes like incredible athletes but what's been the one treat like to to to to have led such a disciplined life and you know and get to the top of the the tree not once but a couple of times and and one of our greatest Olympians now when you do something special like that what's the what's the treat that give yourself just a pack a day what is it the bakery the cinnamon honestly I live a pretty well balanced life I think but I hadn't had a drink since um October so it was very nice to just when I was um I got home or even like after racing we were you know had a good time but getting home and I was in Melbourne and I was open the menu and I'd say ah okay where's the drinks menu and have a glass of wine with dinner that was very nice oh that's good what was your first drink you had after when you finished swimming a cocktail drinks a bit I had a glass of champagne I went um out to lunch with my family the day after I finished racing and we had a I had a glass that was my first drink a glass of so cool and you've brought in a magazine with yourself I have not this was we can put it up on the wall next poster you Harvey Norman yeah definitely a sponsor is it definitely okay it's so good to see you in person you you swam incredible like well done well done another round of thanks guys the ash ly and suie O'Neal podcast