The women's 400m freestyle final at the 2020 Olympics became a must-watch a year ahead of schedule (it became two because of the pandemic). On July 21, 2019, to be exact. It was going to be the highlight on the opening day of the World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. Katie Ledecky had enjoyed serene progress from her heat to the final and was expected to keep dominating the event she had first conquered as a 16-year-old at the World Championships in 2013. She had set the world record, eclipsed it, set more world records, had run most of the fastest times and had added another Olympic gold at the event in Rio by the time 2019 rolled around. So that thinking was only fair. The 24-year-old's only competition was herself. Just to ram home the gulf in class, she had set the fastest time in the heats, clocking 4:01.84.
What happened next, though, was a surprise. Australia's Ariarne Titmus, who qualified second fastest clocking 4:02.42, beat the US athlete by more than one second. Her 3:58.76 was an Australian record and one of the fastest times ever clocked in the event by somebody not named Katie Ledecky. Ledecky finished second with a 3:59.97, a surprise considering the US athlete almost never finishes second in individual races. That wasn't a flash in the pan though. Titmus, four years younger than Ledecky, swam quicker than Ledecky in this distance all through 2020.
This match-up was one reason why the swimming finals are being staged in the morning Japan time, so that it could be watched by fans back home in the US (swimming finals are usually in the night, irrespective of where the Olympics is staged).
This was the backdrop to Monday's 400m freestyle which pit Ledecky in Lane 4 and Titmus in Lane 3. This was why these four minutes became one of the most anticipated ones in recent Olympic history. The hype level was off the charts even if the two swimmers were quietly going about their business in a dignified manner.
And it did deliver. Ledecky, as she usually does, flexed her muscles, opened a solid lead and looked odds on to claim gold with 70 metres to go. However, Titmus, featuring in her first Olympics, isn't one to cower. While lesser swimmers may have worried about the gap, she always stuck to her game plan. Chase the leader before sneaking up on them with only a lap to go. She employed the same strategy, chased Ledecky with about 50m to go, consolidated that advantage before taking down one of the greatest swimmers of all time.
Titmus' time of 3:56:59 was so good it was just 0.13 seconds short of Ledecky's existing world record. The American came home in 3:57:36 minutes.
Just in terms of the sheer numbers, Ledecky had compiled, this does qualify as an upset. Before Monday, she had taken part in four individual swimming finals at the Olympics. She had finished first in all of them.
What did it mean to Titmus and her entourage? One just had to look at the way her coach, Dean Boxall, reacted on the upper deck. He was like an unchained puppy, jumping up and down. At one point, one of the volunteers near him was caught between taking evasive action from his flailing arms and reminding him about the need to put back his mask as he had ripped it during the celebration.
Importantly, this is now a proper rivalry and it gives fans the chance to see what kind of a champion Ledecky is. She hasn't been challenged in this manner. Now that she has, she knows she has to come up with something to answer the challenge. The next phase of this rivalry could come on Wednesday morning when the two will likely go head-to-head (they have advanced to the semifinals) in the 200m freestyle final. They are also scheduled to meet in the 800m freestyle as well as being drafted into the respective 4x200m freestyle squads.
For what it's worth, Titmus played down the prospect of more upsets, even if her aim is to dethrone the current queen of middle-distance swimming. "I don't really feel the hype, it's more you guys. I just try to race the best I can and ignore everything else," she said after the race. "I honestly thought I'd be more nervous coming into this but Dean said to me 'look, you know how to swim, this is just a big swimming race, you just have to do what you know how to do'."
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Just to put the race into perspective, she also thanked the silver-medallist for inspiring women like her to take up the sport. "I wouldn't be here without her, she's set this amazing standard in middle-distance freestyle for girls and if I didn't have someone like her to chase I definitely wouldn't be swimming the way I am," the Australian said. "I'm really grateful to her and now it's good to have someone that I can race all the time. It's super fun. Now I can just have fun out there - being in a battle is the best thing."
For the US athlete, it's about timing her swims going forward, something she hasn't really needed to do in her career. "I fought tooth and nail and that's all you can ask for," she said.
"I didn't feel like I died or fell off, she just had a faster last 50m or 75m and got her hand on the wall first.
"She definitely swam a really smart race. She was really controlled upfront. I felt pretty smooth and strong going out and flipped at the 300 and it was like 'oh, she's right there'."
Being right there is one thing. To have the composure to overtake and beat the great in their first direct race in an Olympic final is a totally different thing.