Ariarne Titmus captured in bizarre pre-race gaffe with Katie Ledecky before Olympic triumph

Ariarne Titmus is so used to being the best in the world that she automatically walked straight to lane four before the 400m freestyle final at the Olympics on Saturday night. The only problem was she was meant to be in lane five because Katie Ledecky was the fastest qualifier.

Titmus blitzed her great American rival to defend her 400m title, becoming the first Australian woman in 60 years to win back-to-back gold medals in the same event. But it came after a bizarre pre-race mishap in which Ledecky had to kindly ask Titmus to move.

Ledecky had beaten Titmus in the heat, meaning the American got the favoured lane four for the final. But Titmus clearly forgot that point, walking to the wrong lane and putting her belongings in the pool-side bin for lane four, rather than lane five.

It made for awkward scenes when Ledecky walked out just seconds later and had to inform Titmus she was standing in the wrong place. Both athletes shared a laugh as Titmus grabbed her things and moved to lane five, putting her hands over her mouth in embarrassment. The moment wasn't captured on the Australian TV broadcast, but went viral amongst American viewers.

Arairne Titmus emulates Dawn Fraser with gold medal heroics

But the pre-race gaffe clearly didn't affect her focus as Titmus powered to another gold medal. In the much-hyped final, Titmus was too good for Summer McIntosh of Canada (second) and Ledecky (third).

She joined the legendary Dawn Fraser (who won 100m freestyle gold in 1956, 1960 and 1964) as the only female Australians to defend an Olympic title in swimming. The only other Aussie woman to do so in any sport is Shirley Strickland (athletics).

"I can't really believe that's me," Titmus said of joining Fraser. "It's fun racing the best in the world. It gets the best out of me. I hope with all the hype we have lived up to expectations. I just look at myself and I'm so normal ... I'm just the same old goofy Tassie girl living out her dream.

"I hope it goes to show anyone can do what they want to do if they work hard and believe in themselves. Here I am, I'm from little old Launnie (Launceston), a town of 90,000, and I'm out here living the dream."

Pundits were expecting more of a contest and thought Titmus would be pushed. But instead they witnessed a masterclass as the Aussie led from start to finish and was never seriously threatened. "I felt pretty good the whole way," she said. "I left everything out there, I gave it everything I could."

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Aussies make Olympics history with three gold on opening day

Titmus' gold was one of three Australia won on Saturday - the country's best result on the opening day in Olympics history. Grace Brown had earlier win gold in the road cycling time trial, before the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team also triumphed.

Elijah Winnington added a silver medal in the men's 400m freestyle, as did the men's 4x100m relay team, giving Australia five medals in total on Saturday. After the official first day of competition, Australia is leading on gold and overall medals.

"Wasn't it just magnificent," Giaan Rooney said on Channel 9. "We hoped for this, we really hoped for it (and) we got it. This was just an epic poolside night. It sets off the domino effect, a night like this inspires the rest of the team and the rest of the performances. The first domino has fallen, bring on the rest."