Ariarne Titmus defends freestyle title as Australia leads Olympics medal tally

Ariarne Titmus defends freestyle title Australia starting strong in the Paris Olympics claiming three gold medals to lead the tally Aran tipas stole the spotlight in the pool defending her women's 400 meter freestyle title Luke doy has more she becomes just the third Australian woman to defend an olypic title after Shirley Strickland did it on the track in 52 and 56 and the great Dawn Fraser did it in 56 and 1960 in the pool and she never looked like being beaten by the 17-year-old Canadian summer Macintosh who finished or indeed the great Katie Lei who earlier in the day had beaten her in the Heats just a little bit of Mind Game Sam Maran she improved her heat time to her final time by 5 Seconds Lei only improved her time from heat to finals by a tick over a second so it seems she knew what she was doing just giving a bit of a false sense of security to Katie Lei in this great rivalry that has developed over the course of the last 5 years or so she wasn't completely happy with the time it was 2 seconds slower than her world record time and also a tick over 2 seconds slower than the time that she swam at the Australian Olympic trials in brisban in June such the competitor but she said look it's all about winning at Olympics and not times her parents were in the crowd her family were there her friends were there as well supporting her as ever they couldn't go to Tokyo because of the covid restrictions to see her with that great swim there where she shot to prominence but they are here in Paris lapping up every minute oh relief without a doubt unbelievable I think when we got to the with 25 M to go we knew there was no way KN they could catch it and then we knew she had to take it off and I think at that moment it was like you know just I actually shook a little bit because it was just the relief the enormity of the occasion it actually come true so it was just wonderful leading up how'd you sleep last night I actually slept okay last night but I didn't feel good for most of today I was pretty I was a bit worried you know if there was so much pressure going into to it and and that and that's not a criticism at all it's just that us Aussies we love our Sport and we really want to get behind our athletes and we knew that there there were a lot of people back in Australia that would be watching and we've bought half of them with us and we've known most of these people here a lot of them for more than 30 years all come from their kids have grown up with Anie and you know and to have Mimsy here too and and as a family to be able to winess that gutsy courageous swim was just phenomenal yes Aran was the first gold medal for Australia in the pool but the women's for by 100 meter freestyle Relay Team continued their imperious Runner form they were the second gold medal for Australia in the pool for the night they haven't been beaten Australia in this event at an Olympic Games since the 2008 games in Beijing so it's their fourth straight win in the Olympic gold medal in the 4X 103 so that tradition continuing here in the pool in Paris the L defense Arena the men's 4X 100 met freestyle relay team they won Silvera this has been a progression for them from bronze in Tokyo to Silver here as well so Arian tipas becomes the second Dawn Fraser Australian swimmer After Dawn Fraser to defend an Olympic title Fox Sports say Maddie John's caught up with Dawn Fraser in Paris for her thoughts after the race what a good night Dawn oh absolutely fantastic you know I've lost my voice of shouting which I don't often do but um it was such a great night for us and we we were leading the in the gold medals and I think we still are which is fantastic in the middle tell after a long period of time someone's matched your record you know I just spoke to the parents there you know the family and uh the old man said to have Arian mentioned in the same like you sentence and and BR as you they said it's mindblowing she actually TR so fantastic tonight and it was good to see because um you know she's been training very hard for it and she's now sent that record which is yeah I can't wait to see her J you know D thinking about how she goes to bed tonight got to she got to swim tomorrow but I reckon to be like in an opening batch and at the end of going 100 not out and go to B tomorrow but she'd be bored she won't swim I mean she won't sleep tonight she might get U maybe half an hour an hour but uh cuz I know what it's like but she'll come up really fresh in the morning because her mind will be thinking on the race tomorrow and what she has to do uh tonight's race has gone out of her head uh until she gets on the plane to go home must be nice mate Ling all the Aussies and people coming up to you uh treating with the respect you deserve Dy thank you very much mate and three-time James Magnuson Olympic medalist James Magnuson watched the race unfold here's what he had to say and you would have seen that last 50 m it wasn't super obvious to the naked eye but her shoulders were going bright red which means she was lactating hard and lei and Macintosh were also dying off in that last 50 so it wasn't too visible to the eye but at 250 M Mark she was actually under world record Pace she dropped the hammer there she ended the the race uh as a competition right then and there and then she didn't break the world record but in Olympic final it's all about just getting that gold medal