Three years ago, Ariarne Titmus felt like she had let her country down.

Australia was tipped to win gold in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay at the Tokyo Olympics, but the Dolphins quartet walked away with bronze after finishing behind China and the United States.

Titmus recorded Australia’s fastest split with a time of 1:54.51, but the champion swimmer was bitterly disappointed with the result.

Ahead of the Paris Olympics, the Queenslander wanted redemption.

“I was disappointed with how I swam in Tokyo,” Titmus told Channel 9.

“I personally felt like I let the team down, so this was a bit of personal vendetta, for me to come back and play my role in the team, but also do it for our country.”

And that’s exactly what she did.

On Friday morning AEST, Titmus combined with Dolphins teammates Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister and Brianna Throssell to win the 4x200m freestyle relay final at Paris La Defense Arena, notching an Olympic record time of 7:38.08.

The Americans were breathing down Australia’s neck following a superb split from the legendary Katie Ledeckey in the third leg, but Titmus steamed ahead of her opponents during a blistering anchor split of 1:52.95.

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“I backed myself,” Titmus continued.

“I’m really proud of this group, we’ve wanted this relay.

“This was a gold medal that we knew we could be ours, and I’m so proud to do it.

“We’re literally living the dream. Very special night.”

Titmus also revealed that O’Callaghan provided some “stern words in my ear behind the block”.

“Look, I don’t think they can be repeated on national television but I think every Australian at home can put some Aussie slang together and figure out what she had to say,” Titmus said.

Olympic 200m freestyle champion O’Callaghan, a relay heats swimmer in Tokyo three years ago, got Australia off to a flying start with a time of 1:53.52, touching the wall more than a second before any of her rivals.

“It means the world to me,” O’Callaghan told Channel 9.

“I’ve dreamt of this moment ever since Tokyo, striving to get on this team.”

Throssell, another heats swimmer from Tokyo, continued: “In Tokyo, I was fortunate to come home with a few medals, but I was a heat swimmer.

“It was an honour to stand alongside these three girls and sing the anthem.”

After the medal ceremony, O’Callaghan walked over towards heats swimmer Jamie Perkins and draped the gold medal around her neck.

In her eyes, Perkins was just as deserving.

“Jamie is my best friend at training,” O’Callaghan said

“She’s there for me. She’s been my roommate this whole meet. She has trained her arse off to get here. She’s gone through a back injury. She’s done everything possible.

“That gold medal means a lot for me to give to her because it represents what she’s been through and she’s well deserving of it, they make up this team.”

After winning its fifth Olympic gold in the pool, Australia has edged ahead of rivals the United States on the swimming medal tally.