Ariane Titmus retires from competitive swimming

The 25-year-old Olympian announced on Instagram that she is planning to retire from competitve swimming.

Transcript

00:00I am here to announce that I've made the decision to retire from competitive swimming.

00:06A tough one, a really tough one, but one that I'm really happy with.

00:12You know, I love swimming. I've always loved swimming.

00:16It's been my passion since I was a little girl.

00:20But I guess I've taken this time away from the sport and realised some things in my life

00:25that have always been important to me are just a little bit more important to me now than swimming.

00:31And that's okay. But yeah, here we are.

00:36Why now?

00:37Yeah, I always intended to return.

00:40I never thought that Paris would be my last Olympic Games.

00:43And knowing now what I know, I wish I had of maybe enjoyed that last race a little bit more.

00:49But I guess having this 12 months away, I've really had the chance to explore what life is like

00:55without swimming, and that was always my intention.

00:58But I think a turning point for me or a time when a switch was flicked was in the lead up to the Paris Games.

01:05I went through some health challenges, which quite frankly, really rocked me mentally.

01:10It probably was the first time where I considered some things outside of swimming.

01:16My whole swimming career, I've been all or nothing.

01:19And that's how I've had to be to become the athlete that I am.

01:22And I've just been in this ruthless pursuit for my goals.

01:26And with working alongside Dean, that's the way that we both decided it had to be for me to beat Katie Ledecky.

01:33But I think delving more into those health challenges,

01:37I've really had to look within and think about what's most important to me.

01:42And beyond swimming, I've always had goals in my personal life.

01:46But swimming's always been most important up until this point.

01:50And I've just realised that those goals and what I want in my future is now more important to me.

01:56But more than anything, I'm excited for what's next.

02:00I'm excited that I now have this opportunity to really delve into life

02:04and other things that I'm wanting to chase and look forward to.

02:07I'm excited.