Paris Olympics: Ariarne Titmus defends 400m freestyle crown
Reigning 400m freestyle Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus has defended her crown in style when toying with her opposition in a star-studded field.
In what was being built up as the “race of the century,” Titmus made it a one-act affair in front of a full house at Paris La Defense Arena on night 1 of the swimming competition.
The 23-year-old became just the second woman, and the first since Dawn Fraser in 1964, to defend her individual Olympic swimming title in the pool.
Titmus beat Canadian Summer McIntosh and the USA’s icon Katie Ledecky in a time of 3:57.49.
Despite Ledecky qualifying with the fastest time ahead of the final, it was Summer McIntosh who tracked Titmus throughout the 400m event, clocking a time of 3:58.37 herself, while Ledecky was simply never in it with a time of 4:00.86.
Titmus will next take to the pool on Day 2 in heats of the 200m freestyle, an event she claimed gold in at Tokyo.
However, fellow Australian Mollie O’Callaghan will be looking to spoil her party and add an Olympic gold alongside her 2023 World Championship title.
Titmus is currently a $1.80 favourite for 200m freestyle gold with BetOnline, with O’Callaghan on the second line of betting with online bookmakers at a quote of $2.15.
Earlier in the night, fellow Australian Elijah Whittington bagged the first medal in the pool as he claimed silver when narrowly defeated by raging hot favourite Lukas Maertens from Germany in a time of 3:41.78.
Fellow Australian Sam Short just missed out on the bronze medal, finishing fourth.