The 27-year-old was visibly uncomfortable when her coaches and teammates lavished praise on her during the media conference. She winced when a reporter described her as an icon.

Her humility can’t hide her record: seven gold medals from the past three Olympics.

Titmus, though, seems to have her measure after beating Ledecky in an epic 400m in Tokyo in 2021.

“I like my chances but that’s me,” she said. “They [Titmus and McIntosh] are great athletes. I’ve had the chance to race them quite a few times now … It’s always fun to race the best. We are the top three performers in that race. Those two have raised the game, raised my game, I know I have to bring my best.”

Ledecky may have dodged questions about the rivalry with the Australian team, and dead-batted those about her opponents, but she had a lot more to say about doping.

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She was asked specifically what competitors expected after it was revealed earlier this year that 23 Chinese athletes were allowed to swim in Tokyo despite testing positive to trimetazidine.

“They want transparency, they want further answers to the questions that still remain,” Ledecky said. “At this point, we’re here to race. We’re going to race whoever is in the lane next to us.

“We’re not the ones paid to do the testing. So we hope that the people are following their own rules and that applies now and into the future.

“We want to see some change for the future so that you don’t have to ask us that question. I hope everyone here is going to be competing clean this week.

“But what really matters also is, were they training clean? So really, hopefully, that has been the case. Hopefully, there has been even testing around the world.”

V’landys, Abdo take flight on cloud Nine

Host broadcaster Nine – owner of this masthead — is flying NRL bosses Peter V’landys and Andrew Abdo to Paris for the Games.

The pair were tight-lipped about the trip when contacted, with Abdo saying he might not come, but they are expected to arrive on Tuesday and to attend swimming and athletics events.

The NRL flew Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby and other executives and editors to the historic season-opening double-header in Las Vegas early this year.

If I know V’landys, it won’t surprise if he collars IOC president Thomas Bach to push for the game’s inclusion in some format at Brisbane in 2032.

You can only presume he might have a word to Sneesby at some stage about Nine grounding NRL programs The Footy Show and 100% Footy for the next three weeks while the Olympics are on.

One person who won’t be in Paris for Nine is former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, who would have been calling the sevens events until he landed the Leicester Tigers job. Cheika has lived in, and run his fashion business out of, Paris for years.

They got game…

Legendary rapper Flavor Flav – a founding member of Public Enemy – will front the world’s press on Friday to talk about his support of Team USA’s women’s water polo team.

There’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d be writing.

Famous for wearing an oversized clock around his neck, dating Brigitte Nielsen and saying “Yeeeeah boooooyyyyy” quite a lot, Flav signed a sponsorship deal in June to be the “official hype man for USA water polo women’s and men’s national teams”.

He did so after seeing an Instagram post from captain Maggie Steffens urging more people to follow the sport, pledging to “use all my relationships and resources” to support the team in the build-up to the Games.

The women’s team is gunning for a fourth straight gold medal at these Olympics.

“He’s actually got in the water with us, scored on Ashleigh [Johnson, the team’s goalkeeper] which is difficult, and came to some of our games,” Steffens said on Thursday.

“It’s been a total blessing. He’s opened up the door and window to a pathway for people to learn about our team, to different communities who would never have heard about water polo.

“Sports like us need people to give us a chance. He’s been great publicity. We look forward to him being here in Paris.”

Coach Adam Krikorian didn’t seem overly enthused about it all.

“This is great,” he said. “Flavor Flav’s great. But we’re here to compete our ass off. That’s what the Olympics are about.”

Yeeeeah boooooyyyyy.

Another rapper, Mr Snoop Dogg himself, will carry the Olympic torch on the final leg before the Eiffel Tower. He’s here as a special correspondent for NBC.

Security of the First World

The security in Paris, particularly around Olympic venues and landmarks, is heavy.

Earlier this week, your humble correspondent was de-fragging at a bar on the Champs-Elysees when police swarmed on four well-dressed young men who, collectively, looked like a boy band.

No less than five police motorbikes and two cars came flying in from all directions, sirens wailing. They checked the quartet’s identification then let them on their way.

THE QUOTE

“The 200m is my wife. The 100m is my mistress.” – American sprinter Noah Lyles in the superb Netflix docuseries Sprint, which follows some of the world’s best sprinters in the lead-up to last year’s athletic world championships. A 200m specialist, Lyles is gunning for a rare double with the 100m.

THUMBS UP

Oh Paris. I forgot how beautiful you are. The host city is glistening as it prepares to host the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad. Paris itself is a work of art but, for the next 16 days, it’s also a magical sporting amphitheatre where medals will be won, hearts broken, and several reporters’ laptops thrown in anger because of Wi-Fi issues.

THUMBS DOWN

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A spying scandal has erupted in women’s soccer with two Canadian staff members sent home for using drones to check out a New Zealand training session ahead of their opening match on Thursday. Their coach, Bev Priestman, has also voluntarily “stepped aside” for the first game. They should have been disqualified from the tournament.

IT’S A BIG WEEKEND FOR …

The Boomers, who start their Olympics campaign against Spain on Saturday.

IT’S AN EVEN BIGGER WEEKEND FOR …

Canoe slalom great Jess Fox and hockey legend Eddie Ockenden, who will carry the Australian flag at the opening ceremony, which will be held early on Saturday morning (AEST). It remains one of the highest honours in Australian sport.

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