Ariarne Titmus shattered fellow Australian Mollie O’Callaghan’s 200m freestyle world record on Wednesday, finishing with a time of 1 minute 52.23 seconds just weeks before defending her Olympic title in Paris.
During the Australian Olympic trials in Brisbane, Titmus touched the wall ahead of O’Callaghan, who also surpassed her previous world record of 1:52.85 by finishing in 1:52.48. Titmus set a fast pace and maintained her lead as O’Callaghan pushed her to the limit.
“Looking at the results, it’s unbelievable. I’m really happy to finally produce a swim in the 200 that I feel like my training reflects,” said the 23-year-old Titmus. “I think just the field that we have is why we are swimming so fast. We push each other every day. To have five girls under [coach] Dean [Boxall] in that final is unbelievable. It’s a credit to him and the program.”
Titmus stunned American great Katie Ledecky to clinch gold in Tokyo three years ago. She now heads to Paris as a favorite alongside O’Callaghan, who broke Italian great Federica Pellegrini’s 14-year-old world record last year.
The pair share eight of the 10 fastest times in history, with Ledecky, Canadian phenomenon Summer McIntosh, and Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey among their top competitors. So far, McIntosh is the only other swimmer to go under 1:54 this year.
Lani Pallister and Brianna Throssell came third and fourth in Brisbane, positioning themselves to be part of an exceptionally fast 4x200m relay team. Titmus has been in top form in Brisbane, swimming the second-fastest 400m freestyle of all time on Monday as she also prepares to defend that Olympic title. She currently holds the world record in that event as well.
