Ariarne Titmus was the swimmer who “ate pressure for breakfast”, adding two Olympic golds in Paris to the pair she won in Tokyo in 2021, before her retirement last October at the tender age of 25.

Good news, perhaps, for Siobhan Haughey, the “very tough but graceful” competitor who claimed Olympic 200m freestyle silver behind Titmus in 2021.

After the same final in the French capital three years later, the usually composed, bubbly and eloquent Titmus was unable to stem a flood of tears as she spoke in a heaving media zone at Paris La Defense Arena.

She had finished second to fellow Australian Mollie O’Callaghan, with Haughey, who Titmus believes is capable of securing her own golden moment in Los Angeles in 2028, coming home third.

“I was so paranoid about the media seeing me upset because I didn’t want anyone to think it was a reaction to losing,” Titmus told the South China Morning Post.

In reality, Titmus was “overcome with emotional energy”, stemming from the relief that her two priority events, the 400m freestyle, which she won, and the 200m freestyle, in which she still owns the world record, were over.

“I felt a lot of pressure from back home to win, which I usually enjoyed,” Titmus said. “When I was 16, [four-times Olympic gold medallist] Cate Campbell said to me, ‘You eat pressure for breakfast, you love it’.