Aussie Olympic hero reveals major health scare
Ariarne Titmus has opened up about a recent health scare, which prompted the 24-year-old Olympian to reassess her priorities.
In September 2023, Titmus revealed she had undergone surgery to remove a large growth found in her ovary.
She initially went for scans on a hip injury, before finding out that her ovary was "8.5×7cm in size and contained 2 benign tumours called dermoids, both 4cm in size".
Now in an interview with Inherited podcast, she has opened up about how much the ordeal affected her and forced her to make a major life decision during an Olympic campaign.
“It changed my perspective on life quite a lot actually,” she began.
“I’m stumped with this, it’s a bit of a freak out moment.
“The hardest part was going through all the tests, seeing how big it was, whether it was cancerous, how they were going to remove it.
“For me and where I want to go in my life, there was just no other option. I had to get it out.
“It put a lot of things into perspective for me. My body isn’t just a vehicle to train, my body’s purpose, really, is to carry a child one day.
“And that really hit home to me, it made me realise how much I want to be a mum, and it made swimming almost seem a bit irrelevant at the time.”
The four-time Olympic gold medallist had to spend several weeks out of the water to recover from the surgery and had to miss training in the lead up to the Paris Olympics.
“I think after that operation I just went crazy. It was really, really challenging," she said
“I was battling in my head, post-surgery, one side of me being like, ‘Let your body heal, let your body get better because you need to let yourself recover’. And then the other part of my brain was like, ‘No, you only have eight months (until the Olympics), you’ve got to get going’.
“I had my coach pushing me and every day checking, like, ‘How’s it feeling? How’s it feeling?’
“Because when you get your abdominal walls cut open, it takes a while to heal. And especially swimming, (which) is such a core-dominant sport.
“It was really, really, really challenging, but I’m actually glad it happened because it made me have a different outlook on life.”
She added that she would give up her swimming career to be a mum one day.
“I’ve always wanted to be a mum, but it probably made me realise how much I want it,” she said.
“I would give up every gold medal I’ve ever won to have a child.
“I just have such maternal instincts, and I think the fear of potentially that becoming harder by the prospect of losing the ovary was really tough.
“I’m so lucky that I’ve got the best mum in the world, and I just want to be that one day.”
Since her return from Paris, the Olympian said she would be taking a break from swimming for a year.
"I think I really just need a break away to reset and give my mind a bit of a rest.”
Images: Instagram