Ariarne Titmus retires just as she swam – at the top of the sport and uniquely herself | Kieran Pender

Stepping away from swimming as current two-time world and Olympic champion at only 25 is another distinctively Titmus thing to do Ariarne Titmus has always done things her own way. So it was when she first blazed to glory in 2019 – a teenager unheralded outside Australia, upstaging American swim queen Katie Ledecky on the world stage. So it was in 2022 when, as reigning world and Olympic champion, Titmus decided to skip the world titles. “I’ll definitely be asleep,” she told me at the time – the