For Australians, Ariarne Titmus is most associated with water. The Olympian has spent her life in it. We watched her glide through pools around the world, bringing home Olympic gold. Yet for years, there was one body of water she avoided whenever she could: the ocean.
“I have a massive fear of sharks,” Ariarne Titmus tells The Weekly. “I’d 100 per cent say it’s a phobia.”
Rather than letting that fear control her, Ariarne decided to face it head-on in Nine’s new reality series SHARK!. In the series, six celebrities travel to the Bahamas, aka the shark capital of the world, to confront their fears underwater.
Joining Ariarne were legendary TV WEEK Gold Logie winner Lynne McGranger, actor Matt Nable, sportsman Sam Thaiday, influencer Tammy Hembrow, and The Block’s Scotty Cam.
“When we first got to the Bahamas, the bull sharks were swimming off the pier at the hotel!” she remembers. “It was probably the most terrifying few weeks of my life.”
Despite the laughs and camaraderie, Ariarne’s fear was real from the moment she arrived in the Bahamas. And, Ariarne, who knows the power of a team, shares that she “didn’t want to let the team down.”
Australians know Ariarne as the athlete who stands behind the starting blocks looking unshakeable. SHARK! reveals a different side of her.
“One of the responses when I am scared is crying,” Ariarne admits. “I do shed a lot of tears on this show, without even realising it. It was incredibly stressful for me. I did everything I could to try and get through the challenges and stay calm and prove to myself that I could do it.”
In fact, she shares that she relied on the mental fortitude she honed as an athlete.
“I had to get myself into almost a performance mindset,” she says. “I had to stay present, think rationally and trust the people around us that were there to keep us safe.”
Until now, we have only really seen Ariarne as the performance athlete, winning gold medals for Australia at the Olympics; this was different.
“When I was competing, I was always so confident in my ability, and I was never afraid that I wasn’t going to be able to perform. But this was the polar opposite. I’m petrified and totally out of my comfort zone.”
However, her team rallied around her, and one in particular was a soothing balm in the tense situation.
“Oh my gosh, Lynne is one-of-a-kind,” Ariarne says of her co-star. “When I first found out she was a part of the show, I was so excited because I watched Home and Away growing up.”
“She is one of the best people I’ve ever met in my life,” she continued. “She was like the glue of the cast, and she’s one of the funniest people you’ll ever meet. Some of her one-liners are just hilarious. It got us through, you know, a really terrifying time.”
One of those is a memorable moment when Ariarne shows Lynne and Tammy two lucky charms on her bikini.
“Boobs,” Lynne jokes in response.
So, if she didn’t know how incredible the cast was going to be, why did she even put herself in that situation?
“It was my partner, Mac, who said to me, ‘I know what’s going to happen. This show is going to air, and you’re going to regret not having the opportunity to confront sharks’,” Ariarne admits.
Until filming began, Ariarne had never actually seen a shark in the wild.
“I’d never witnessed a shark in person,” she says. “All of my fear was based on negativity and fearmongering. I’d never actually seen it for myself.”
Yet perhaps the biggest surprise was how much the experience changed her perspective.
“I’m actually really excited for Australia to see what we did,” Ariarne tells me. “I learned so much about sharks and their role in the ocean, and, if they do attack, why they attack and what circumstances to avoid those situations. And if you do get bitten, how to react to save your life.”
But she still appreciates the magnitude of the animal:
“I know now more than ever how strong these animals are, how powerful they are and why they are apex predators. And so, yes, my fear hasn’t vanished.”
Before this show, Ariarne admits that she would only go into the ocean knee-deep. Has that changed?
“I’ve gone for a little ocean swim since the show, which I’ve never really done before, but I’m still apprehensive because I know they’re out there. Having seen them firsthand, though, I know they don’t want to bite you.”
There’s one lesson that really stuck with Ariarne that has helped her with her fears: “They don’t want to bite you.”
“Like when they know what you are and they can see you, they don’t want to bite you,” she shares. However, she also advises that the onus is on us as beings that live on the land to respect their home.
“If you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time and sharks mistake you and they’re scared and they’re protecting themselves, they don’t have hands to see what we are. The only tool they have is their mouth. And that’s where, unfortunately, tragic events like shark attacks can happen.”
What kinds of situations can be dangerous?
“Don’t swim at dawn and dusk, don’t swim at unpatrolled beaches, don’t swim after it’s rained heavily and the water’s murky because that’s where you put yourself most at risk.”
“I’m still very scared, but I don’t look at sharks as the monsters I thought them to be anymore.”
For a woman who once refused to venture beyond knee-deep water, that’s a victory every bit as meaningful as a medal.
SHARK! premieres Sunday, May 31, at 7.00 pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
