"I would give up every gold medal I have ever won to have a child" - Ariarne Titmus opens up on recovering from ovarian tumor surgery

Olympian Ariarne Titmus recently revealed about the importance of being a mother in her recent appearance at the podcast, 'Inherited.' The Australian swimmer went through surgery in September 2023, citing tumors in her ovary.

Titmus underwent surgery to remove two tumors from her right ovary, which kept her away from competitive swimming for a while. Her tumors were first detected in an MRI, which was initially done to examine a hip injury. However, three months after the surgery, she kickstarted her career again and also competed at the Paris Olympics.

In a conversation with Ruby Hall, the host of Inherited, on October 22, Titmus opened up about how her mindset changed post-surgery and how she became more eager to experience motherhood. She revealed how her health scare helped her have a different outlook on life, which made her embrace motherhood more. The 24-year-old said that she was ready to give up all her gold medals for having a child.

"I would give up every gold medal I have ever wanted to have a child. I just have such maternal instincts, I think the fear of potentially that becoming harder by the prospect of losing an ovary was really tough. I am so lucky that I have got the best mum in the world, and I just want to be that one day. So, it was really really challenging."

She added:

"I was battling in my head post-surgery, one side of me was like, let your body heal, let your body be, get better, because you need to let yourself recover, and then other part of my brain was like, no, you only have eight months, you gotta get going. You know my coach pushing me and everyday checking how was I feeling, because when you get something like cut open, it takes a while to heal, and especially swimming is such a core dominant sport. It was really, really challenging, but I am actually glad it happened because of it I made me have a different outlook on life."

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Ariarne Titmus opened up about her experience at the Olympic Village during the Paris Olympics

Ariarne Titmus spoke about her experience at the Paris Olympics- Source: Getty

Ariarne Titmus appeared in an interview with The Project on August 15, 2024, where she opened up about her experience at the Olympic Village during the Paris Olympics. The Australian revealed that her experience in the event was different from the perception surrounding it.

"The best part was our baristas, who had two baristas in our little precinct[...] They did it all up, and it felt like home, we had Aussie food, TimTams, and chockies. But the village isn't as glamorous as the people think."

She then unveiled the fact that the bed sheets did not get changed, and they also ran out of toilet paper.

"Our bed sheets got changed after the first night we were there and then they didn't get changed for the rest of the time we were there, so we were living in filth... We would have to lie about how many roommates we had so we could scab toilet rolls. We'd run out of toilet paper and they'd only give us one for four days for the entire apartment."

Ariarne Titmus wrapped up her Paris Olympics campaign with four medals, of which two were gold and two were silver. She won her first gold medal in Paris in the 400m freestyle event, where she bested Katie Ledecky.

Another gold medal was added to the Aussie's medal tally during the women's 4x200m freestyle relay, where she swam the anchor leg and helped her team to create a new Olympic record. She won two silver medals in the 200m freestyle and the 800m freestyle events.