Australian swim star Ariarne Titmus admits it’s been a “tough” week since having her 400m freestyle world record broken by a teenager.
Canadian 16-year-old Summer McIntosh stunned the sport on Wednesday when she clocked 3:56.08 at the national trials in Toronto, shaving more than three tenths of a second off the record Titmus set at the Australian Championships in Adelaide last May.
McIntosh has long been seen as a rising superstar of swimming, having finished fourth behind Titmus in Tokyo when she was only 14 years old.
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With those two and American champion Katie Ledecky, there’s a mouthwatering battle looming at next year’s Paris Olympics.
Titmus spoke for the first time to Nine’s Sports Sunday since having her record smashed.
“This week, certainly having your own world record broken is a tough pill to swallow,” the 22-year-old said.
“But I think you have to look at the good in everything, and it’s probably a good thing it was broken now, it gives me a bit of extra fire in the belly.
“It’s naïve to think that the world of swimming is just going to stop.
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“It’s exciting for our sport, it’s exciting for the 400m freestyle, I think the match-up between Summer, Katie, and I is going to be as strong as ever in Paris.
“Time is flying. It’s only a year and a half away. It’s exciting for the sport.”
Titmus recently return home to Australia from an intense training camp in Thailand with her coach Dean Boxall.
“It was tough, I was very excited to come home, but we got some good work in,” Titmus said of the camp.
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