The race was billed as the fight of the century, featuring three world record holders and future Hall of Famers, but on that raucous night in Paris, hype and reality were far from mutually exclusive, as the Australian known as the Terminator once again defended his Olympic 400m freestyle title, standing at the end immortal and immortal.
The first thing Ariarne Titmuss did after her victory was to embrace Summer McIntosh, a talented 17-year-old from Canada who had always been a threat but never quite delivered. Next up was Katie Ledecky of the United States, the undisputed best women’s swimmer. There was respect and gratitude there. But they knew Titmuss was too strong again.
“Honestly, I think the pressure I felt in this race was the most I’ve ever felt in my life,” Titmuss said. “I’m good at dealing with pressure, but I definitely felt the pressure.”
How does she keep giving birth? Her family believes it’s because she was born with the umbilical cord around her neck, and that her fight to survive shaped her into the person she is today. Her father, Steve, says, “It was like from that moment on, she never gave up.” There’s a lot of talk about manifestation these days, and Titmuss may be a prime example of the concept.
In truth, it was a good race, but not a great one, and the Big Three quickly gave way to a tenacious duo as Ledecky struggled to keep up with the blistering pace of Titmus and McIntosh.
They were close at the halfway mark, but Titmuss slowly, almost imperceptibly, made a strong comeback to win in 3:57.49, with McIntosh winning in 3:58.37 and Ledecky winning bronze in 4:00.86.
“But it’s fun racing against the best in the world,” Titmuss said. “We’re both at our best so hopefully we can live up to those expectations and have a good race tonight.” Everyone was having fun.”
Thankfully, there was a suitable venue for this gladiatorial battle, a welcome relief given that the swimming arena at the Tokyo Olympics was inevitably empty: in recent weeks, organisers have been converting La Défense’s indoor rugby stadium, where Racing 92 plays its home games, into a special swimming arena.
With two swimming pools containing 2.5 million litres of water and seating for 15,000, the stadium is an incredible feat of engineering.
But there’s clearly one key ingredient missing: lightning speed. Most experts speculate that this is because the pool is only 2.30 meters deep. When it comes to fast times, simple logic tends to apply: the deeper the pool, the faster.
Maybe that’s why Titmuss’ winning time was two seconds slower than her world record. But this night it wasn’t about records, it was about legacy. “The Olympics are different to any other,” she said. “It’s not about how fast you go, it’s about getting your hands on the wall, so I’m really happy I was able to do that tonight.”
She added: “I started to feel it in the last 100 miles, but I gave it my all. Maybe it wasn’t the time I had but it’s hard to perform at a high level when you live in a village. It’s a question of who can keep their minds up.”
For Ledecky, the night was rewarding. It was her eighth individual medal, tying her with Carl Lewis and Ray Eury. In fact, Michael Phelps is the only American with more individual Olympic medals in any sport than Ledecky, with 16.
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While Great Britain failed to win a medal on the first day of swimming, Team GB’s Adam Peaty and China’s Qin Haiyang each won their semi-finals, helping to set up a thrilling 100m breaststroke showdown on Sunday.
Peaty, bidding to become the first swimmer to win three gold medals over the distance, will have felt he made a quiet statement after qualifying in 58.86 seconds, beating reigning world champion Nick Fink of the United States by just 0.30 seconds.
Qin’s time of 58.93 was only slightly slower, but Peaty believes he can go faster. “Technically, there’s still a lot to improve,” he said. “The second half was really tough. I know these guys were a little slower, but I respect that.”
This is how the Olympics work: it’s not a matter of time, it’s a matter of race.”
Pointing to the pool, he added: “This sport is so tough, but nothing beats it. I’ve fallen in love with it again. What else can I add to that besides chocolate cake?”
That same evening, Lucas Martens won the men’s 400m freestyle, becoming the first German to win an Olympic title since Michael Gross’ albatross at the 1988 Seoul Games.
The first session ended with Australia winning gold again in the penultimate event, the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay – an Olympic record – with the USA second and China third, but Great Britain finished nearly seven seconds behind in sixth place.
Chants of “U-SA! U-SA!” rang out around the arena as the USA won the men’s 4x100m freestyle gold medal in a time of 3:09.28, beating Australia and Italy, and the British team came in fifth place.
