Speaker 1: You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2: Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land and
Speaker 2: waters that this podcast is recorded on Hello and welcome
Speaker 2: to but are You Happy? The podcast that asks the
Speaker 2: questions you've always wanted to know from the people who
Speaker 2: appear to have it all. Arianne Titmas is just twenty
Speaker 2: three years old and is the reigning Olympic champion in
Speaker 2: the women's two hundred meter and four hundred meter freestyle.
Speaker 2: She's the current world record holder in the long course
Speaker 2: four hundred meter freestyle event. She is literally the best
Speaker 2: in the world at what she does.
Speaker 3: Aria Tipmas is hanging on can't you get there? World
Speaker 3: records catching up? Come on an get there, come on
Speaker 3: down record for can you my good?
Speaker 1: And Marvi parist W was primped from her and Horror
Speaker 1: Kids a crenting grimmed but I knew world record to
Speaker 1: our real Chickson, not other thorns.
Speaker 2: But I wanted to speak to her ahead of the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four Paris Games about how that kind of
Speaker 2: success changes the nature of your relationship.
Speaker 4: A lot of people started to come out of the
Speaker 4: woodworks that you hadn't spoken to for a long time.
Speaker 4: And maybe I knew them for like a snippet here
Speaker 4: or there in my life, and people will draw on
Speaker 4: one experience they have with you to relate themselves to you. Well,
Speaker 4: I contributed to that or I knew her here, And
Speaker 4: it was probably the first time in my life I
Speaker 4: really started to feel trust issues with people around me.
Speaker 2: Why she has intentionally chosen not to have a performance
Speaker 2: or mindset coach, and how when it comes to happiness,
Speaker 2: she'd trade in every medal she's ever won to achieve
Speaker 2: another goal entirely.
Speaker 4: I think it really hit me that I want children
Speaker 4: so badly one day It's like my biggest goal in
Speaker 4: my life. I would give up every metal I've ever
Speaker 4: won to be a mother.
Speaker 2: Here's my conversation with Arianne Titmus. Arianne Titmus, sitting in
Speaker 2: front of me right now. You are not far from
Speaker 2: competing in the Paris Olympics. You appear to me to
Speaker 2: be in peak physical form, although I'm not the expert
Speaker 2: when it comes to that. You just you look incredibly healthy.
Speaker 2: And you're the reigning Olympic champion in the women's two
Speaker 2: hundred meter and four hundred meter freestyle, having won both
Speaker 2: events at the twenty twenty Olympics and you're the world
Speaker 2: record holder in the four hundred meter freestyle. I want
Speaker 2: to start in the present moment. How would you describe
Speaker 2: your life as it is right now?
Speaker 4: I would say my life as it is right now
Speaker 4: is probably as physically and mentally tough as a would
Speaker 4: possibly be. I think right now I'm in the absolute
Speaker 4: crux of preparing for an Olympic Games, and my life
Speaker 4: is kind of in hibernation outside of training. I've pretty
Speaker 4: much had to put my social life, work, outside of swimming,
Speaker 4: everything on the back burner. There's really no time for
Speaker 4: anything else other than training. But you have to be
Speaker 4: content with that decision and that choice, because at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, it's a once in a lifetime
Speaker 4: opportunity to compete in Olympic Games, and then even more
Speaker 4: so to have the chance to race for gold and
Speaker 4: be a legitimate chance. You really have to be content
Speaker 4: with the decisions you make, to be able to prioritize
Speaker 4: the training in my life and then know that really
Speaker 4: it'll be all over very quickly.
Speaker 2: It feels like such a rare skill to be able
Speaker 2: to put that future goal on a pedestal and sacrifice
Speaker 2: the present for that. And I think that's what a
Speaker 2: lot of us struggle with is day to day. We
Speaker 2: might have a goal that we're working towards, but the
Speaker 2: short term gratifications in front of us are so much
Speaker 2: that we stop working towards that. Do you ever feel
Speaker 2: like you're missing out on stuff in the moment because
Speaker 2: you're working so hard for those goals, like missing out
Speaker 2: on being in your twenties and going out and partying
Speaker 2: or traveling or anything like that because you're working on
Speaker 2: such a long term goal.
Speaker 4: I think a few years ago, definitely before my first
Speaker 4: Olympic Games, I always said to myself or my friends
Speaker 4: that asked me this, do you feel like you sacrifice
Speaker 4: a part of your life? And I used to always
Speaker 4: say no, because these are choices that I make, and
Speaker 4: I get to live such an incredible life and travel
Speaker 4: the world and represent our country and I've made friends
Speaker 4: overseas and I get to do something that not many
Speaker 4: people get to do. But then after the last Olympics,
Speaker 4: when I had, I guess, my real first time away
Speaker 4: from the sport, I got to experience a lot of
Speaker 4: things that I missed out on growing up. I got
Speaker 4: to really immerse myself into figuring out who I was
Speaker 4: outside of swimming and spending time with my family and
Speaker 4: friends and not having to have at the back of
Speaker 4: my mind or worry about training the next morning. And
Speaker 4: one of my friends is saying to me a lot
Speaker 4: at the moment because pretty much the only thing I
Speaker 4: can do to hang out with my friends is cook
Speaker 4: dinner at home and lay on the couch or get
Speaker 4: a coffee or do something really simple. And she keeps
Speaker 4: saying to me, Oh, my gosh, I can't wait till
Speaker 4: you're just a normal person in a few months time.
Speaker 4: But I think the same thing as well. But then
Speaker 4: I also say, you know what, I have this one
Speaker 4: chance to go for it. I'm only young once. A
Speaker 4: lot of people would dream to be in my position,
Speaker 4: and I think I would regret it for the rest
Speaker 4: of my life if I resented the work that I
Speaker 4: have to put in. And I should be grateful that
Speaker 4: I've been blessed with this incredible gift and opportunity. And
Speaker 4: so I think it's more the choices you make and
Speaker 4: not so much sacrifices. And if you look at it
Speaker 4: that way, I think it becomes a lot easier to
Speaker 4: live the life of a professional athlete.
Speaker 2: You had huge success at the Tokyo Olympics and you
Speaker 2: were just Australia's Golden girl, and it was there were
Speaker 2: memes about Dean and just how much joy he got
Speaker 2: from watching you. I can imagine that is some of
Speaker 2: the greatest success a person could imagine at an incredibly
Speaker 2: young age. But you say there were parts of that
Speaker 2: that the world would think it was the absolute happiest
Speaker 2: moment of your life, that that would be conducive to
Speaker 2: pure unbridled happiness. But you've kind of said it was
Speaker 2: a bit more complicated than that. Do you want to
Speaker 2: speak about that a little bit?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there's like a few aspects to it.
Speaker 4: For me, going into those games, I definitely knew there
Speaker 4: was an expect on me to win, like there is
Speaker 4: going into these ones. And for me when I did
Speaker 4: win the four hundred, and it wasn't a sense of
Speaker 4: joy or happiness that I kind of initially felt. It
Speaker 4: was relief and like a thank God, like the monkey's
Speaker 4: off my back. And when you really think about it,
Speaker 4: that's probably not how you should feel when you've achieved
Speaker 4: your greatest dream. And once the games were over and
Speaker 4: things started to sink in a little bit. Then I
Speaker 4: did start to feel the joy in elation that you
Speaker 4: should feel, and I finally realized what I had achieved.
Speaker 4: But one thing is when you're preparing for an event
Speaker 4: like an Olympics, like I am now in the final stages,
Speaker 4: you really have to know who in a circle is
Speaker 4: and have a small group of friends and family around
Speaker 4: you that truly understand what you are preparing for and
Speaker 4: understand that maybe I don't have time for them right
Speaker 4: now and that's okay, but they completely stand that. And
Speaker 4: one thing that really hit me after the last Olympics
Speaker 4: was I got so many messages of support and congratulations
Speaker 4: and it's overwhelming. And I definitely did feel the support
Speaker 4: from hundreds of people, but a lot of people started
Speaker 4: to come out of the woodworks that you hadn't spoken
Speaker 4: to for a long time, and maybe I knew them
Speaker 4: for like a snippet here or there in my life,
Speaker 4: and people will draw on one experience they have with
Speaker 4: you to relate themselves to you. Well, I contributed to
Speaker 4: that or I knew her here, And it was probably
Speaker 4: the first time in my life I really started to
Speaker 4: feel trust issues with people around me. I have always
Speaker 4: been someone who's had my heart on my sleeve. I
Speaker 4: have no filter. I say it how it is, and
Speaker 4: I've always trusted people quite easily and felt like I
Speaker 4: had a pretty good gut feel and good read on
Speaker 4: people around me. And I questioned whether people wanted to
Speaker 4: be in my life and be my friend because of
Speaker 4: who I am at the core and who I am
Speaker 4: as a person as arian me, or whether they wanted
Speaker 4: a piece of me just because I was this new
Speaker 4: golden bill in the limelight and they could draw on that.
Speaker 4: And it was really hard to navigate that, and even
Speaker 4: though there was so many people around me, I felt
Speaker 4: quite isolated and had to really think about who I
Speaker 4: could truly trust in those moments. And you figure it
Speaker 4: out quickly, because as soon as I guess the whole
Speaker 4: Olympic hype dies down, you realize who still hangs on
Speaker 4: and still wants to check in and see you and
Speaker 4: make sure you're okay. So I think that's something that
Speaker 4: I really had to learn to navigate. And I was
Speaker 4: not even twenty one when I wanted the last Olympics,
Speaker 4: and so it's something pretty challenging to navigate. But I
Speaker 4: feel really lucky that I do genuinely have a really
Speaker 4: great close group around me.
Speaker 2: It's something that you think a lot of successful people
Speaker 2: must experience, and people don't talk about it a lot
Speaker 2: that I can imagine. I mean, if I'd gone to
Speaker 2: primary school with you, I would have been thinking, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: we were best friends and one time we raised and
Speaker 2: I just really think I motivated her, and so I
Speaker 2: can understand how that happens. Why do you think it
Speaker 2: feels so disappointing? Was there anything kind of hurtful about
Speaker 2: people reaching out? Does it make you feel like your
Speaker 2: only worth is in that external success when people reach
Speaker 2: out to.
Speaker 4: You like that, Yeah, I swim, I'm not a swimmer.
Speaker 4: Swimming is an aspect of my life, and at the
Speaker 4: moment it's a major aspect of my life, but it's
Speaker 4: not who I am, and a lot of people never
Speaker 4: ever ever wanted a piece of me before all this
Speaker 4: success came. So it does kind of put your worth
Speaker 4: on the joy and success from tangible things like Olympic
Speaker 4: gold medals. But I was having a conversation with someone
Speaker 4: the other day and what we said was, I'm going
Speaker 4: to go to these paras Olympics, and of course I
Speaker 4: have big goals, but you can't let your joy be
Speaker 4: determined by what you do and don't achieve. And I
Speaker 4: think that that's what I've realized now, that you can't
Speaker 4: base someone or look at someone and think you know
Speaker 4: who they are because of what they've achieved in the world.
Speaker 4: And so I think that's something that I've realized, and
Speaker 4: it's also made me realize definitely in tough times since
Speaker 4: the last Olympics. You go through tough times and you
Speaker 4: realize who you real people are and they still want
Speaker 4: just as much of you, even when you're not the
Speaker 4: best version of yourself. And so I think that's also
Speaker 4: probably been a wonderful thing that's come out of it.
Speaker 4: Since the last Olympics, met so many incredible people and
Speaker 4: a lot of them have stuck around, and so that's
Speaker 4: a positive I guess that I'll take from the experience
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 2: Coming up, Marianne talks about what it was like for
Speaker 2: her whole family to move into State to support her swimming,
Speaker 2: and the anxiety of not fitting in when they got there.
Speaker 2: So you were in Tasmania and your training and then
Speaker 2: you and your family moved to Brisbane in order to
Speaker 2: have the best training you could possibly have. I think
Speaker 2: you've said something about how being in Tasmania wasn't conducive
Speaker 2: to super high performance, which is fascinating because Brisbane is
Speaker 2: just where the best people are for swimming. So you
Speaker 2: move to Brisbane, but that means a total upheaval of
Speaker 2: your life. How old were you and what changes and
Speaker 2: challenges did you face when you moved to Brisbane.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I was fourteen when we made the move,
Speaker 4: and I will be forever grateful for my family to
Speaker 4: do that. I look at a fourteen year old girl
Speaker 4: now who's Sumi, and I think to myself, how did
Speaker 4: my mom and dad have the belief in me to
Speaker 4: think that she's going to make it and quit their
Speaker 4: jobs look for new work. I remember we moved to
Speaker 4: Brisbane and we legitimately didn't have a place to live.
Speaker 4: We stayed with my coach at the time, had a
Speaker 4: friend who had a spare bedroom and we all stayed
Speaker 4: in there together, the four of us, for like two
Speaker 4: weeks until we found a rental. And I think there
Speaker 4: were a few challenges. I mean, growing up in Tazzy,
Speaker 4: I had the most incredible childhood, Like Loncessen is such
Speaker 4: a small town and I never had to make a
Speaker 4: friend in my life. I went through primary school and
Speaker 4: then went into high school. My entire class went to
Speaker 4: the same high school, and I never had to try
Speaker 4: and fit in. I guess everyone knows everyone in Tazzy
Speaker 4: and I enjoyed that small town vibe a lot. I
Speaker 4: always said to myself, I would never want to live
Speaker 4: in a big city, even the thought of moving. A
Speaker 4: couple of years prior to moving, I was adamant we
Speaker 4: were not. But then it wasn't until I think I
Speaker 4: really truly realized if I wanted to make something of
Speaker 4: myself as an athlete. I was kind of left with
Speaker 4: no choice and I was just very lucky that my
Speaker 4: parents were willing to back me. But coming to Brisbane,
Speaker 4: I remember before we left we were looking at schools
Speaker 4: and where to go, and I was very lucky. I
Speaker 4: was offered a swimming scholarship to one of Brisbane's top
Speaker 4: private girls schools. And Tazzy can be a bit rough
Speaker 4: around the edges, but so proud of it, and came
Speaker 4: into this entirely new environment that I'd never been exposed
Speaker 4: to before. With it was so prim and proper and
Speaker 4: just exposed to girls that had been brought up in
Speaker 4: such a privileged lifestyle. I was just blown away with
Speaker 4: everything and totally didn't feel like I fit in and
Speaker 4: you almost have to fake it. And I'm very lucky
Speaker 4: that I had my swimming to kind of draw back on,
Speaker 4: and that's why we moved. But it was really challenging,
Speaker 4: and my dad actually stayed back in Tazzy for six
Speaker 4: months working while he was looking for work up here,
Speaker 4: and my mom and dad had never spent that long
Speaker 4: a part and it was really challenging on them. And
Speaker 4: I still feel like, really like I owe them for
Speaker 4: putting them through that, and so that was definitely a
Speaker 4: big challenge for us. And it was really tough in
Speaker 4: the beginning to make friends as well, Like going into
Speaker 4: an all girls school in year ten is really hard.
Speaker 4: So I found that really challenging actually when I think
Speaker 4: back on it. But I'm lucky that when I then
Speaker 4: moved swimming clubs to where I trained now at Saint Peter's,
Speaker 4: you had to go to school to swim there, so
Speaker 4: in the squad I had once I moved there, I
Speaker 4: had a bunch of friends that I walked up the
Speaker 4: hill to school with, so I had that when I
Speaker 4: moved schools for swimming, but in the beginning it was
Speaker 4: actually really hard. I'd never been excluded or felt like
Speaker 4: I didn't fit into my entire life, but I definitely
Speaker 4: would say that I felt that in the beginning.
Speaker 2: I can't imagine that decision from your family and then
Speaker 2: the pressure that you'd feel to be like, oh wow,
Speaker 2: I better actually work hard at training if they've made
Speaker 2: this decision for me. And that contrast of coming from
Speaker 2: your sharing a room and then turning up to a
Speaker 2: private school and knowing that you've got a bit of
Speaker 2: a different lifestyle to the others must have been really jarring.
Speaker 4: Yeah it was, and you just have to pretend. I
Speaker 4: guess I was just blown away, like I'd never seen
Speaker 4: wealth like it in my life. You know, kids getting
Speaker 4: dropped off to school in their dad's ferrari or whatever,
Speaker 4: and you're just exposed to that in little old contestins. Yeah. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: it was a whole new experience for me. But at
Speaker 4: the same time, I was also juggling like the expectation
Speaker 4: to truly make it as a swimmer, Like I never
Speaker 4: ever felt a sense of pressure for it all to
Speaker 4: come to fruish from my mum and Dad like, that's
Speaker 4: something that I will be always so grateful for. I
Speaker 4: never ever felt a sense of you have to make it.
Speaker 4: We've made this big sacrifice for you. I never ever
Speaker 4: felt that from them, but within myself I did because
Speaker 4: it was such a huge sacrifice and a massive upheople
Speaker 4: of our life that if it hadn't have all happened,
Speaker 4: I think I would have felt like I'd let them down.
Speaker 4: So I was managing that as well. So I remember
Speaker 4: when we first moved, I was training so hard. I
Speaker 4: just was doing everything I possibly could to become a success,
Speaker 4: and then it would have been within a year and
Speaker 4: a half that I made the Australian team. So I
Speaker 4: guess it all did happen, but it could have easily
Speaker 4: gone the other way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the risk you've got to take after
Speaker 2: the break. Arianne shares what happened when she had a
Speaker 2: scant and doctors made a worrying discovery. You had a
Speaker 2: bit of a scary experience late last year with a
Speaker 2: health issue, having a scan and finding some ovarian cysts.
Speaker 2: When that happened, what kind of impact did that have
Speaker 2: on your mental health and where were you in terms
Speaker 2: of your happiness when there's such a big threat to
Speaker 2: your health and your well being.
Speaker 4: I just kind of got back into the group of
Speaker 4: swimming after a break following Worlds last year, so I
Speaker 4: was still kind of in mind. I wasn't taking training
Speaker 4: too seriously. I was back and I was getting fit again,
Speaker 4: but we weren't in the super specific crux of high
Speaker 4: performance training yet because we just came back off a break.
Speaker 2: And when you have a break from swimming, are you
Speaker 2: not swimming or are you still training but just not
Speaker 2: as hard as you usually do.
Speaker 4: I had two weeks out of the water. Oh wow,
Speaker 4: so yeah, yeah, so nice little sabbatical, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: When I get back in the water after two weeks,
Speaker 4: I feel like I forgot how to swim. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I was kind of getting my groove back a
Speaker 4: little bit. And prior to World's last year, I had
Speaker 4: a bit of a I've had a hip injury ongoing
Speaker 4: for a few years that kind of flares up and
Speaker 4: goes away, and we didn't bother about getting a scan
Speaker 4: before Worlds because I was doing everything I could. It
Speaker 4: was just a bit of pain management. But I said
Speaker 4: to my physio when I come back and I've got
Speaker 4: more time on my hands and training is not as hectic.
Speaker 4: Let's scan my hip. I just want to know what's
Speaker 4: going on in there. And when I did my scan
Speaker 4: foot nothing of it. I was thinking it was going
Speaker 4: to just be something to do with the tendon in
Speaker 4: my hip. Flakes are and I remember my physio told
Speaker 4: me everything with my hip, which was fine, and she said, oh,
Speaker 4: has the doctor phoned you? And I said no, but
Speaker 4: like she's like, oh, just wait for him to call you.
Speaker 4: I said, oh, can't you tell me, because when they
Speaker 4: say that, you know something's wrong. Yeah. So I rang
Speaker 4: my doctor straight away, and so he told me that
Speaker 4: they'd scanned me very thoroughly and they'd found on the
Speaker 4: right ovary, which was the opposite side to my sore hip,
Speaker 4: this big growth and they thought it was a dermoid
Speaker 4: to start with, which is what it ended up being,
Speaker 4: but they still can't really tell. So she said, you
Speaker 4: need to go and see your go on to acologist.
Speaker 4: And I'm very lucky that I have a great relationship
Speaker 4: with her anyway, So I said straight away, like I
Speaker 4: want her to do the surgery if that's what I need.
Speaker 4: And she said to me, well, you need to go
Speaker 4: and do all these tests. I need you to go
Speaker 4: and do cancer markers. I need you to go and
Speaker 4: have an internal ultrasound to figure out how big it
Speaker 4: is to help navigate the surgery, and we need to
Speaker 4: make up like a rehab plan. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: you know, I'll be able to go back in the
Speaker 4: water in a week or whatever, and she said, no,
Speaker 4: like you need to have like a proper time out
Speaker 4: of the water, Like an incision through your abdominalt wall
Speaker 4: is like a proper thing. And I was like, this
Speaker 4: can't be real, Like I can't be in the peak
Speaker 4: of my athletic career and getting blood tests for cancer
Speaker 4: on my ovaries. And for me, I think the biggest
Speaker 4: thing was once we found out what it was, and
Speaker 4: it was pretty harmless, but it was huge. It was
Speaker 4: eight by seven centimeters, which is just incredible that it
Speaker 4: was inside me for so long, and I didn't realize.
Speaker 4: I think once all the surgery happened and I was
Speaker 4: fine and everything was all good and I was recovering,
Speaker 4: the thing that I realized was that it put a
Speaker 4: lot in my life into perspective. It really hit me
Speaker 4: that I want children so badly one day it's like
Speaker 4: my biggest goal in my life. I would give up
Speaker 4: every metal I've ever won to be a mother. And
Speaker 4: I just feel so lucky now that I'm fine and
Speaker 4: I still get to train every day and chase my
Speaker 4: goals in the pool, but also hopefully be a mum too.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I think life does that on purpose. I found
Speaker 2: when I'm going too far down a path where I'm
Speaker 2: very focused on achievement or very focused on outcomes, You'll
Speaker 2: have this scary moment like that that you go, oh,
Speaker 2: hold on, none of that matters. What matters is my health,
Speaker 2: Like the fact that it reminds you in a scary
Speaker 2: way that you have so much to be grateful for
Speaker 2: and so much could be taken away out of your control.
Speaker 2: You have talked a little bit about when you're training
Speaker 2: and competing, you have to work quite hard to block
Speaker 2: out the noise, whether that's social media or actual media,
Speaker 2: things being written about you, the expectations and the pressure
Speaker 2: that people are putting on you. How does that work?
Speaker 2: Because the idea that you consider that noise and you've
Speaker 2: kind of just got to focus on the task at
Speaker 2: hand seems so obvious, But I think it's something most
Speaker 2: of us don't think about seeing that as a bit
Speaker 2: of a decision to block out things like social media
Speaker 2: that are so unnecessary. When you're now training and going
Speaker 2: to the paras Olympics, are you going to completely get
Speaker 2: off social media and try and block out all of
Speaker 2: that for want of a better word, bullshit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, Olympic sport is quite strange how I mean,
Speaker 4: swimming gets a little bit of media attention every year
Speaker 4: when we go away and compete internationally and we do incredible.
Speaker 4: I mean last year we top the metal tally, which
Speaker 4: is unreal. And then but as an Olympic sport that
Speaker 4: is so successful, I don't think you're prepared for the
Speaker 4: massive amount of who hear around swimming once every four years.
Speaker 4: So for me, I know a lot of the well
Speaker 4: wishes and media articles and write ups and everything about
Speaker 4: swimming all comes mostly from a good place. But when
Speaker 4: you read every time how everyone thinks, how great you are,
Speaker 4: everyone thinks you're going to win, it can kind of
Speaker 4: like build up, build up, build up, and make you realize,
Speaker 4: oh shit, Like if I don't win, people are going
Speaker 4: to be sad, not just me, but I've let people down,
Speaker 4: and so I think The best thing I do is
Speaker 4: the expectations that I put on myself, and the goals
Speaker 4: I set have to be firmer than what I feel
Speaker 4: from external noise. I guess. So what I do do
Speaker 4: is at Olympics, I delete every social media off my phone.
Speaker 4: Even if you're getting hundreds and thousands of messages of
Speaker 4: well wishes and congratulations, it's way too overwhelming to even
Speaker 4: deal with. One. You can sit there for hours reading
Speaker 4: it and then you're like, oh shit, I'm not asleep,
Speaker 4: so then my effectual performance. But two. At an Olympics
Speaker 4: it is a pressure cooker environment. You have to keep
Speaker 4: the lead on the entire time, and one tiny thing
Speaker 4: that can release the valve could undo your entire week.
Speaker 4: So I just think it's not even worth engaging in
Speaker 4: any of it. So I won't be on anything while
Speaker 4: I'm racing. I'll probably get my manager to run my Instagram,
Speaker 4: and then once I go back on when I finished racing,
Speaker 4: I remember last time, it was the most unreal feeling,
Speaker 4: like seeing all the support all at once, but it's
Speaker 4: just with the task at hand. At an Olympic Games,
Speaker 4: it's the most exhausting week of your life. You just
Speaker 4: can't afford to engage at all in anything else.
Speaker 2: I think that's probably something a lot of us should
Speaker 2: be aware of that if we've got a massive goal,
Speaker 2: social media isn't helping in such a distraction for everyone.
Speaker 2: And I mean, I can imagine with swimming, and when
Speaker 2: what you're doing is so incredibly public, it's just even
Speaker 2: more of a distruction.
Speaker 4: Could be wrong. There's a lot of good stuff, but
Speaker 4: there's also a lot of crap, and there's a lot
Speaker 4: of people with opinions that don't matter.
Speaker 2: Arianne and I had such an incredible conversation that we
Speaker 2: decided to split this final episode of the season into
Speaker 2: two parts just to share the entire interview with you.
Speaker 2: You can listen to part two right after this there's
Speaker 2: a link in the show notes. In part two, we
Speaker 2: dive deeper into the reality of preparing for the Olympic Games,
Speaker 2: how Arianne would feel if she doesn't win gold in Paris,
Speaker 2: and her biggest personal insecurities outside of swimming. She also
Speaker 2: reveals if she has a backup plan for life after
Speaker 2: retirement from the sport. This episode was produced by Tarlie Blackman,
Speaker 2: with audio production by Scott Stronik.