Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus had a very special supporter in the Paris Olympics crowd cheering her on during the 4x200m freestyle relay race.
Queen Mary of Denmark, who is Australian-born and a distant cousin of the swimmer, was seen amongst the Aussies as Titmus and her team took home the gold.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Arnie and Molly chasing gold.
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The win is the eighth gold medal for Team Australia and was secured by Titmus and teammates Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister and Brianna Throssell.
Following the victory and medal presentation Titmus was seen hugging the Queen of Denmark in the stands.
After seeing Mary and Titmus celebrating together, Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff took to his Instagram: “Two Tasmanians we couldn’t be prouder of. What a special moment.”
While Mary is at the Olympics officially to represent Team Denmark, she has been showing off her Aussie roots, even paying a visit to the Australians at the Olympic Village ahead of the Opening Ceremony.
She was seen taking selfies and conversing with the athletes.
“Royalty in the Village! Australian-born Queen Mary of Denmark joined athletes in the Olympic Village,” the Australian Olympic Team Instagram caption read.
Mary grew up in Tasmania and met King Frederik in 2000 during the Sydney Olympic Games.
She renounced her Australian citizenship after their wedding in 2004.
Ahead of the Paris Olympics, Titmus revealed her connection to the royal.
“We’re actually cousins in a distant, roundabout sort of way,” she told Woman’s Day.
“One of dad’s cousins is married to Mary’s cousin, which is actually pretty funny considering the running joke that everyone born in Tasmania is somehow related!”
At the time, Titmus’ father Steve explained the royal couple’s plan to be in the crowd during his daughters’ 400m freestyle race.
“It’s been in the works for months, and all had to be hush-hush due to security concerns,” he told the publication.
“The 400m women’s final is regarded as the race that will stop the nation – and having a king and queen cheering on our Arnie – it doesn’t get much better.”
The 4x200m freestyle relay was kicked off by O’Callaghan kicked who was first at every turn, with Pallister and Throssell maintaining the position through the middle portion of the race despite a huge push from American legend Katie Ledecky to leap into second.
But Titmus put together a perfect anchor leg of 1:52.95 — the fastest split by far — to comfortably shade the United States and seal gold with a new Olympic record time of 7:38.08 for Australia.
The United States held on for silver as they did in Tokyo three years ago while defending champions China took bronze.
Titmus was the only member of the team to return from the Tokyo 2020 final where Australia settled for bronze in a thriller.
The 23-year-old, who opened the competition with gold in the 400m freestyle, now has two golds here and four in total in her Olympic career.
