While Ariarne Titmus’ Olympic win will go down in history as one of the sports most incredible moments, it seems her coach Dean Boxall’s hip-thrusting celebration has stolen a little bit of her limelight, with footage of the moment going viral around the globe.
Aussie swimmer Titmus took home the gold for the 400-metre freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday beating out US Olympic champion Katie Ledecky for the win. The 20-year-old Aussie recorded a time of 3:56.69, more than half a second off Ledecky, a new personal best and Australian record.
Following the win, 43-year-old Boxall shocked onlookers with his wild celebration which saw the coach rip off his mask, fist punch the air and grab the rails and thrust wildly. Footage of the moment has been picked up by media outlets around the world, including The Washington Post, and India Times.
Following the incredible reaction, Boxall told 7News he kind of “lost it” and found himself channelling The Ultimate Warrior, an American professional wrestler popular in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
“He’s my favourite,” he said. “I used to follow him. I used to wrestle at home with my brother when I was about 10. I just loved him.
“We had a race plan but in this situation and under that amount of pressure, Ariarne executed it to perfection. And so when I saw it starting to build, I thought, ‘Here we go, she could do this!’ Unbelievable to execute that under pressure.
“I think I went outside of my body. It built up in the trials, it was coming through and then when I saw the race unfolding I couldn’t keep it in.
“I need to apologise, actually, because I tore my mask off and it ripped. I just lost it in the moment.”
American entertainment outlet E! was just as captured by the moment as the rest of the world, describing it as a “must-see … freak out”. “‘Lost it’ is an interesting choice of words considering not only did he pull off his mask and punch the air in celebration—which can be expected—but, it’s the hip-swaying, thrusts of celebration outside of the barrier in the arena that’s really worth the watch,” the publication wrote.
Back home, we were loving the coach’s celebration just as much, with some joking his “pure gold’ reaction was mirrored in living rooms around the country. “This is the type of coach we all need,” one said. “This was me on the inside watching it live at work,” another wrote.
While one joked, “[He] just found out there’s one curry pie left at the kiosk- go you good thing.”
Titmus took out first place for the 200m freestyle semi-final on Tuesday, while Aussie Kaylee McKeown won Australia’s second individual gold medal in the pool for the 100m backstroke, now holding both the world and Olympic records.