The gold-winning Olympic swimmer is doing great in Paris. An Olympian who has won three medals at the Paris Olympics in the pool is being questioned by fans about a possible unfair advantage.
We’re just over a week into the sports festival in France, but there’s already been a lot to talk about.
The opening ceremony was controversial, and recently, there’s been a lot of discussion about Imane Khelif, the boxer who failed a gender eligibility test.
Australia’s Ariarne Titmus is also making headlines in Paris after winning three swimming medals.
While the US usually dominates the pool at the Olympics, this time the Australian athletes are shining.
Australia has won 13 medals in swimming so far, including an impressive seven golds.
Titmus is one of the swimmers contributing to this success, with Paris being her second Olympics.
She won two golds, a silver, and a bronze at Tokyo 2020 and has continued that success in Paris.
The 23-year-old has kept her titles in the 400m freestyle and the 4x200m freestyle, and she also won silver again in the 200m freestyle, just like in Tokyo.
Titmus is still competing in the 800m freestyle, with the heats starting on Friday (August 2).
While her performances have been impressive, some people are questioning if she has an unfair advantage. Titmus has been wearing bright yellow acrylic nails, and some wonder if the length of these nails could help her activate the timing pads at the ends of the swimming pool.
One person on Reddit asked, “How are fingernails like this allowed? The races are so close.”
But many people disagreed. One person wrote, “If long fingernails helped, everyone would have them, and they’d also grow out their toenails. The tips of the nails are too small to trigger the touchpads, and hitting the wall with your fingers is really uncomfortable.”
Another person said, “Fake nails hitting the wall first won’t help you win. You have to hit the boards hard to make them stop the timer.”
