PARIS -- As Ariarne Titmus dipped underwater, majestically contorted her body and completed one final tumble-turn before making the frantic dash for home, head coach Dean Boxall leapt to his feet in the La Defense Arena grandstands, threw his fists into the air, and began urging his star pupil on.
With 50m to swim in the 400m freestyle final, Titmus held a narrow quarter-of-a-body-length lead over Canadian teen prodigy Summer McIntosh. But as the finish line got nearer, the Australian's trademark smooth, fluid strokes began elongating. Her speed becoming more pronounced. Suddenly, that sliver of a margin between the pair, who had long ago left American icon Katie Ledecky in their wake, had doubled. Then tripled.
Titmus continued to pull clear over the final metres, eventually stopping the clock in 3:57.49 to complete a dominant and successful Olympic title defence and justify every skerrick of her pre-Games confidence. But her immediate reaction was not of jubilation or ecstasy, rather relief.
"It's a different feeling winning it again after the first time. I'm buggered. I'm relieved," Titmus told reporters on the pool deck moments after clinching her latest Olympic gold. "I know what it takes to be Olympic champion and I know how hard it is racing in these circumstances at an Olympic Games. It's not really like anything else, the noise and atmosphere and pressure."
The world's media had dubbed this the "race of the century," but, in truth, that felt like a desperate marketing ploy built purely out of North American hope. With all due respect to McIntosh and Ledecky, this was Titmus' race, an event she has had a stranglehold on for six years, and it would have been a monumental boilover if anyone stole it from her on the world's biggest stage.
Since Ledecky prevailed in the 400m at the 2019 Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo, Titmus has not been beaten at the distance in a race where medals have been at stake. That streak now includes back-to-back Olympic golds, two Commonwealth Games triumphs, and a trio of world championship victories. She also owns five of the seven fastest times ever set in the event and was some four seconds quicker than her rivals in the months leading into these Games.
The Tasmanian led the entire way on Saturday evening in front of a raucous crowd dotted with iconic green and gold shirts, Australian flags, and inflatable boxing kangaroos. She was always in control, always of the knowledge that she had the answers for whatever anyone could throw at her, and felt "pretty good the whole way." Heck, her winning time was almost two seconds slower than her world record benchmark.
Try as they might, they couldn't usurp her.
Ledecky appeared to fire her best shot in the morning's heats, where energy conservation was paramount. Titmus had led the entire way but taken her foot off the gas with 75m to swim, allowing the American long distance superstar to swallow her up. It was the only way she was touching the wall first in a 400m race with Titmus.
"I'm just happy to get the result for myself, and I'm so honoured to be part of the race," Titmus told broadcaster Nine after the final. "It's fun racing the best in the world. It gets the best out of me; it gets the best out of them. I really hope all the hype lived up to the expectation. I really hope that I put on a good show tonight and everyone enjoyed it."
Titmus' latest triumph only solidified her standing as the best short-to-middle distance swimmer on the planet. She becomes the first woman to successfully defend a 400m Olympic title since Martha Norelius at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam and the first Australian lady to defend an Olympic crown since Dawn Fraser in 1964.
And it's her place in Australian sporting history which now becomes a fascinating discussion point and something of a watch this space. Remember, she's still only 23 years of age.
Despite the age, Titmus' Olympic gold medal haul now stands at three and the opportunity to move within one of outright leader Emma McKeon (6) -- who also clinched gold on day one with victory in the women's 100m freestyle relay -- later this meet remains well and truly alive. Titmus will defend her 200m freestyle title Monday and play a lead role in the women's 200m freestyle relay team that's a short-priced favourite to secure the top step of the podium late next week.
It's not only on the board she departs Paris on the Mount Rushmore of Australia's most successful Olympians, it's becoming increasingly likely. But that's not something playing on her mind right now. Far from it.
"I hope nobody looks at me any differently. I'm just the same old goofy Tassie girl out here living out her dream," she said. "I love swimming, love getting out and representing our country, having fun.
"I hope it goes to show, anyone can do what they want to do if they work hard and believe in themselves. And here I am, from little old Launie (Launceston), a town of 90,000, and I'm out here living the dream, so I hope that inspired kids back home."