The freestyle specialist had a meet to remember in South Korea, beating idol Katie Ledecky for the 400-metre crown before leading the 4x200m relay team to a world record victory over the US.

Titmus also claimed a silver medal in the 200m and, on the penultimate day of competition, flew home to set a new Oceania record of 8:15.70 to add bronze in the 800m behind Ledecky and Italy's Simona Quadarella.

With the Tokyo Olympics dominating the 18-year-old's horizon, Titmus is set to compete around the globe for a franchised outfit in the inaugural International Swimming League.

TITMUS FEVER

Signed to the San Francisco-based Cali Condors, led by four-time Olympic gold medallist and general manager Jason Lezak, Titmus joins fellow Australian stars Mitch Larkin and Jack Cartwright in the line-up with the innovative competition promising to change the swimming landscape.

"The biggest thing now is where swimming is going to go in the future," Ariane's father, Steve Titmus said from Gwangju.

"The biggest focus will be the Olympics for next year. Mixed in with that will be a bit of the ISL and then after the Olympics next year it will be back into a cycle of world championships for both short-course and long-course."

Getting underway in October, Titmus is set to visit Naples, Indianapolis and Washington before the competition concludes in December with a blockbuster final at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Casino, offering equal prize-money for male and female athletes.

Titmus' outstanding world championships performance has prompted discussion whether the youthful swimmer is among the likes of Ricky Ponting, Matthew Wells, Peter Hudson and Richie Porte as the greatest athletes Tasmania has produced.

Steve described such comments made as "humbling" before expressing his pure pride for his daughter's achievements.

"Tasmania has produced some tremendous athletes over the years and to have our daughter described in those words is really humbling and makes us feel enormously proud that we've been able to raise a daughter who is so focused on her sport.

"We are in awe of her commitment to her sport and her focus. At the end of the day, whatever accolades may come her way, she would have deserved them because she's worked so hard."

ELSEWHERE IN SPORT

Moving from Launceston to Queensland in mid-2015, the Titmus family left behind Tasmanian friends to help chase their daughter's dream and realise her full potential, a move which has clearly paid off.

"There's been some wonderful things written in the past week and it's really humbling and it's enormously emotional to read some of these tremendous things that have been written."

In addition to her world record and two gold medals at the world championships, Titmus has a short-course world record to her name set in 2018.

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