Ariarne Titmus came. Ariarne Titmus saw. Ariarne Titmus conquered. Again. 

Once again the Launceston-born, Queensland-honed talent raised her level to unquestionably cement herself as the middle-distance queen of swimming with a brutal performance to retain her Olympic 400m freestyle title in Paris.

It wasn’t her fastest swim. In the end, it didn’t need to be.

But it was most certainly brilliant.

What is it that makes a champion?

Relentlessness? Brilliance? Serenity?  

Titmus showed all of that in the pool on the first day of competition.

The now two-time 400m Olympic champion looked utterly in control from the moment she stepped out into this magnificent arena to the west of central Paris.

“It is one thing to come into an Olympics … and defend your title, [it’s] a big monkey on your back,” Titmus told Channel 9 after her race. 

“I felt it this week.”

Most of the 15,000 people inside the magnificent Paris La Défense Arena seemed to feel it too, favouring Katie Ledecky, the legion of American devotees paying homage with a ear-splitting roar that could easily have shaken the belief of anyone opposing them. 

That’s the thing about legends. 

Their aura of invincibility holds sway over those who have adored them enough to become a cloak, a shield with which to batter down your opponents.

Some people, displaying frankly astonishing degrees of impiety, felt that Ledecky’s heat victory was a portent of the American’s resurgence, the deliverance of a psychological blow that would inexplicably destabilise one of the most mature 23-year-olds you could ever meet.

Never mind that the heat swim did not even break the top 20 of Titmus’s career times for the swim.

Never mind that Titmus has beaten Ledecky over 400m at every single major meet that has mattered since 2019.

Never mind, indeed, that Ledecky was fastest off the block in the final, 0.02 seconds faster than Titmus.

Never mind. Because that was the only moment in the race that Ledecky led.

Sandwiched between Ledecky and Summer McIntosh — the two most recent women to hold the world record apart from Titmus — the Australian powered down the first 50 metres, looking mostly away from Ledecky, who was breathing to the side looking at the Australian.

By the time the race was a minute old though, Titmus was no longer looking into her rivals eyes, but instead the empty space where Ledecky would soon be.

At that stage and, perhaps earlier, it was clear from the stands that the threat would be from McIntosh.

Still only 17, McIntosh has done more than most to chip away at Ledecky’s aura of invincibility.

It was the Canadian who, in 2023, ended Ledecky’s nine-year unbeaten streak in domestic finals in the 200m at a 2023 Pro Swim Series event in Fort Lauderdale.

She also, earlier this year, beat Ledecky over 800m at a nondescript meet in Orlando.

That was the first time Ledecky had lost in an 800m final since 2010, when she was just 13.

And Titmus knew the Canadian was coming, watching her as she breathed on her way back down the pool. 

This is the Canadian who, in breaking the 400m world record in 2023, turned the titanic two-way battle for 400m supremacy into a three-way war.

The Canadian who, after breaking that world record, had flattered to deceive over eight lengths of freestyle, while crushing records in other events instead.

Was this her time?

Not likely.

Titmus simply could not be contained.

Because where the young Canadian had sniped and battled and eroded Ledecky’s dominance, Titmus has simply not allowed her to do the same to her.

McIntosh has never beaten Titmus in any major meet, from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the Commonwealth Games in 2022 to the World Championship in 2023 — Titmus has never given her a sniff.

And she was not going to let it happen here either.

After the race both Titmus and Ledecky acknowledged their rivalry as more like a friendship, a rivalry that pushes both to greater heights.

“We have a lot of respect for each other, and we love competing against each other,” Ledecky said.

Now a back-to-back Olympic champion, Titmus admitted to feeling something of an out-of-body experience. 

“I can’t believe that’s me, to be honest,” she told the Olympic Broadcasting Services after her race.

“I look at myself and I’m so normal. I love swimming, and I love getting out and representing my country and having fun. 

“I hope nobody looks at me any differently. I’m just the same old goofy Tassie girl out here living out her dream.

“I hope it goes to show, anyone can do what they want to do if they work hard and believe in themselves. 

“Here I am, from little old Launie, a town of 90,000, and I’m out here living the dream, so I hope that inspired kids back home.”

Unfortunately Arnie, you are anything but normal. Feats such as these are the making of a legend.

Winning this race is the cementing of a legacy that will see Titmus justifiably take her place in the Pantheon alongside Ledecky, who despite this defeat can still lay claim to being the world’s greatest freestyle swimmer after claiming another medal.

This time it was bronze — her first ever Olympic medal of that colour — in a career that has seen her claim 10 others of a gold and silver hue.

The legend, and she is a legend, was playing second fiddle, though.