Those two ingredients were a crucial part of a recipe concocted to defeat Katie Ledecky at the Olympics, something Titmus ended up doing in both the 200m and 400m freestyle events.

Speaking on Sunrise, the pair gave Australia and the world a glimpse into just how tough they had to work, describing the pain as "enormous".

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"People at home don't understand, like they are probably sitting there very nervous about that race, how it was unfolding, but I thought about that situation and relived it in my head probably every day for the last two years," Boxall said about the 400m triumph, which saw Titmus take the lead in the second-last lap.

"I knew it was going to come down to the last lap, we spoke about it, that's how we trained.

"The one thing that we said is that we are going to have to ask her a question and you'll have to see what the answer is and that answer will come on the last lap and as you can see, Arnie was just, just tough."

Beating U.S star Ledecky was never going to be an easy task, as coming into the Olympics, 23 of the world's top 30 400m freestyle times had her name next to them.

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But Titmus' was also there, and had defeated a virus-riddled Ledecky at the 2019 world champs, setting up what many described as the perfect storm for Tokyo.

"I had to create something for Arnie for that moment, you don't all of a sudden click your fingers and you become an Olympic champion [and] take out the G.O.A.T (greatest of all time)," Boxall said.

"Ledecky is an absolute machine, she is superior in most things that she's done in the last eight years and for us to stand there and go 'we are going to challenge you', if you accept this challenge Arnie, you have to go to the darkest place and we both went there together.

"That is the beauty of it, she demanded from me and I demanded from her and it was every single day and every session. If she wasn't on, she heard it from me, if she wasn't stretching properly, if she told me she went to bed half an hour later than normal - I was on to her."

Their bond that's been developing since Titmus joined St Peters Western in 2016 meant that she expected the same from Boxall during the lengthy preparation process.

"On the days that I'm at the pool twice a day, I could be there up to seven or eight hours and Dean's there longer but more than anything it's the mental pressure I was put under from Dean especially," Titmus said.

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"I could not relax one day, even on recovery sessions it was about focusing on my technique, focusing on my skills.

"When I'm not at the pool, I've still got to think about my training, my eating and my sleeping. It's very full on and we knew that it had to be like that because of who I was racing. This was different, I had to perform in a race where I was trying to take down the best female swimmer ever.

"As Dean said, it was probably the toughest challenge to overcome but we both signed up for it and we did it."

The 400m victory on Monday, July 26 put Titmus' name up into the lights, if it wasn't already, and made Australians stand proud.

As his protegee achieved the ultimate success, Boxall couldn't contain the energy that had built up inside him for several years, producing a celebration echoing that of former WWF superstar The Ultimate Warrior.

"I just hope that one day we can actually sit down and really discuss how this was done because .. it's for me the biggest challenge in our sport, to take down Ledecky, and that release of energy that I had was because I had seen it being outplayed in my head and I'd seen it come to fruition," Boxall said.

The 20-year-old's maiden Olympic campaign ended with two golds, a silver and a bronze, while Ledecky has already declared she's aiming for Paris 2024, meaning the battle isn't over yet.