Ariarne Titmus in worrying Aussie swimming revelation amid 'scary' saga
The Aussie golden girl has had surgery to remove two tumours discovered earlier this year.
Australian Olympic champion Ariarne Titumus has made a painful admission about her swimming recovery, having recently had surgery to remove two benign tumours. Australia's golden girl of freestyle swimming, Titmus revealed in September that doctors found two tumours on one of her ovaries by chance, after she underwent an MRI scan for a sore hip.
The 23-year-old - a two-time Olympic gold medallist and 400m freestyle world record holder - had surgery to remove the benign tumours and is stepping up her recovery ahead of next year's Paris Olympic Games. Titmus is back training in the pool and gym but admits she's been left feeling "frustrated" with where her preparation is at in the lead-up to the Paris Games.
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"It's frustrating being behind where I want to be at this point in the season, because the recovery from a surgery like this is not simple," Titmus told the Keegan and Company podcast. "But I had no choice for me and where I want to go in my life, I just had to get it out.
"I wasn't doing anything for two weeks and then slowly got back in (the pool); I wore a floaty around my waist ... doing dog paddles for 200 metres and slowly building up.
Such is the frequency and intensity of the training for Australia's elite swimming stars such as Titmus, that even a short stint away from the pool has been acutely felt by the 23-year-old. "It's just so frustrating, my squad is so fit at the moment and I just feel like a blob," she revealed.
Titmus won gold in the 200 and 400m at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, as well as silver in the 800m. She is a seven-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, and four-time world championship gold medallist.
Health scare put things into perspective for Ariarne Titumus
Titmus regained the 400m world record at the world championships in July, and also holds the 4x200m freestyle relay world record with Mollie O'Callaghan, Shayna Jack and Brianna Throssell. The 23-year-old revealed that her insatiable appetite for success and focus on training had perhaps seen her neglect other areas of her health and described the initial diagnosis as a massive eye-opener.
"As an athlete, you are all the time so worried about keeping your body in check to perform, and only worrying about getting enough sleep, eating right, physio, massage - all just to perform every day," Titmus said. "So when you hear that you've got a tumour on your ovary, it cuts pretty deep.
"I'm one of the lucky ones. I'm very lucky that it was removed easily and there was nothing serious ... but it was really scary." The Queenslander said she feared the tumours would deny her a chance to be a mother, something she described as her "biggest dream". However, Titmus said she felt blessed that scans picked up the tumours early and was grateful for the messages of support she got from other women around Australia.
"When you get told something that could potentially interfere with that (pregnancy), it's really scary," Titmus revealed in her September post. "Since then I've had so many women message me and be like, 'I had a massive (tumour) and I lost my ovary, but I got pregnant with one ovary'. It was pretty cool to hear from women and all their different stories."
with AAP
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