Ariarne Titmus reflects on retirement, health and new life as she promotes memoir Relentless

Ariarne Titmus, the Australian swimmer, spoke this week about her decision to retire, her health and fertility journey, and the release of her memoir Relentless while promoting the book and building a life in Melbourne.

Now 26 and two years removed from her final competitive event, Titmus recounted a swimming career that produced four Olympic golds, three silver and one bronze and included a teenage move to Brisbane to train under Dean Boxall. The memoir, Relentless, is co-written with the former journalist Phil Lutton and, she said, revisits her relationship with Boxall and the intensity that defined her preparation and performance.

Titmus described her former mindset in stark terms. "I look at a lot of things in my life pretty black and white, which is probably not a good way to be sometimes," she said. "In my swimming career, I was all or nothing. I was win or lose. I was achieve it, or fail. And I guess that’s not a great way to be in life." Her nickname, "Arnie", she said, reflected a ruthless, almost robotic approach to competition akin to the Terminator.

She gave candid accounts of medical issues that influenced her life and career. Titmus described two cysts removed from her right ovary as being "made up of cartilage and … my colour hair, like it had been pulled out of a hairbrush" and called them "monstrous-looking things." The surgery took place in 2023, before she returned at Paris to defend her 400m crown against Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh; last year she was told only one ovary was still producing follicles and that her egg count was low. She froze eggs and said doctors advised her not to wait too long to try to fall pregnant.

On the role her medical advice played in her retirement she was unequivocal: "It was ultimately the final reason why I decided to retire." She added: "With everything that I’ve been told by doctors, I really hope that [falling pregnant] is not too challenging, but if it is, if there’s a will, there’s a way. I guess I just wanted to give myself that space to live a bit of life before I have to move into that next chapter, which when it does come, I’m very excited for."

The book revisits her partnership with coach Dean Boxall, whose name appears 229 times in its 304 pages, and includes episodes of his motivational methods. Titmus described their relationship as "intense, emotional, joyous, trying at times and increasingly complex" and recounted an episode in which Boxall shouted, "Arnie’s world record is GONE," about Summer McIntosh bettering her 400m world record — a moment Titmus called "disrespectful and demeaning." She nevertheless defended the broader context, saying: "I hope that when people read the book, they understand in the tough moments when we had a few blow-ups – and he certainly pushed me extremely hard – that they understand the context that it was in. "We were trying to be the best that we possibly could be and win at the Olympic Games. And in order to win, we had to take down the greatest ever, so it was quite an unusual challenge. The trust I had in him meant that whatever direction we had to take, I believed it was the right way."

Titmus said she required a different coaching approach to some teammates: "I need to be held accountable and pushed and given that ‘bad cop’ reaction," and admitted frustration when others received praise while she did not. She remains close to Boxall, she said, though they rarely discuss swimming beyond occasional reminiscence, and she checks in on him regularly. "I just always check in and make sure he’s OK, because what you see on the pool deck is like 1% of his passion that he exudes every day," she said. "He puts so much of his life into his job as a coach, he’s so passionate about it that sometimes I worry what would he do if he didn’t have it? Sometimes I worry that he doesn’t put himself first."

Titmus also described conversations outside swimming that helped shape her decision to step away, including a meeting with Ash Barty at Barty’s house in Brisbane, where the former tennis champion told her it was preferable that people ask "why you are retiring, not when." On parenting and potential children’s relationship with the sport she said she would not force competitive swimming: "If they do want to do swimming then they’re going to have to tell me if they want to do it for fun or if they want to do it seriously, because it’s two very different approaches," adding: "If they want to take after mum, go for it. It’s a very hard life, but if they want to, they can do it. But if they want to do something else – and they might not even be sporty – they can do whatever they want."

Titmus is engaged to Mac Powell, having become engaged last month, and is pursuing a career in media while promoting Relentless on a tour this week. She said the combination of medical advice and a desire to experience more of life informed her retirement and that she is giving herself space before moving into the next chapter.