By Ian Ransom and Rohith Nair
PARIS (Reuters) -Australia’s Olympic champion swimmers are planning long breaks and to skip world events, feeling exhausted after their Paris success at La Defense Arena.
Ariarne Titmus, who retained her 400 metres freestyle title and took silver in the 800m in Paris, will take at least 12 months off swimming and miss next year’s World Championships in Singapore.
But she plans another tilt for gold at LA 2028.
“I just want to make sure I’m ready to go in LA,” the quadruple Olympic champion told reporters on Monday.
“I don’t want to come back too early and, you know, lose that fire, I guess. I think four years is a long time, so I want to prepare myself the best for those Olympic Games.
“For me, that’s the priority, not world championships in the years prior, so I just want to really have time to let the hunger build back up and enjoy myself for a little while.”
Teammate Mollie O’Callaghan, who took Titmus’s 200m crown, will also “reset and re-evaluate” before competing again.
“I’m extremely tired, it’s been an emotional, draining week. I’ve had to try and keep myself together,” O’Callaghan said.
“I need to have a mental break. People don’t see behind (the scenes), us training every day. It’s really, really mentally draining and it’s really tough.”
Kaylee McKeown, who became the first woman to retain both Olympic backstroke titles in Paris, is also ready for a spell out of the sport.
“I need to be able to do that just to mentally refresh. I don’t think people realise how hard it is in a nine-day meet,” said the 23-year-old.
Emma McKeon confirmed her retirement from the pool at 30, having won her sixth gold medal in Paris — in the women’s 4x100m relay — the most Olympic titles won by an Australian in any sport.
“I will miss the training and the racing but I am definitely ready for the next part of my life which I am excited for,” she said.
Top men’s sprinter Kyle Chalmers, however, who medalled in the 100m freestyle at a third straight Games, is eyeing another Olympics in 2028 when he will be 30.
He took his second successive silver in the event won by China’s Pan Zhanle, who produced an incredible world record swim of 46.40 seconds.
“I am going to have to train even harder now to be competitive with him,” said Chalmers.
“I am going to take it as motivation …. I want to be competitive, I don’t want to be finishing up second or third.”
(Reporting by Ian Ransom and Rohith Nair in Paris; editing by Pritha Sarkar and Ed Osmond)
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