Olympic gold medal winning Australian swimmer questioned by fans about certain aspect

Australia's Ariarne Titmus has won three medals at the Paris Olympics this summer, but one aspect in the wake of her triumphs have divided fans as to whether she potentially has an unfair advantage.

The Olympics are at around the halfway point with Team GB sitting fourth in the medal table at time of writing, with a total of 10 gold medals won so far.

Five of these have been won in the swimming pool, with gold being claimed in the 4x200m freestyle relay event, as well as four silver medals.

As far as the swimming medal table is concerned, Great Britain are sixth behind Italy, Canada and host nation France in third.

But two other nations are well in front in the table in terms of their overall haul in the form of Australia and the United States, with both countries traditionally very strong in this area.

Australia top the swimming medal table with 13 claimed so far, including seven golds.

The United States meanwhile have claimed a huge 21 medals - almost half their overall total at this stage - with four golds among those.

Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus is competing in her second Olympics Games, having won two golds, a silver and a bronze at Tokyo 2020.

She has continued that form with two golds and a silver so far this Olympiad.

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Titmus, 23, has retained her title in the 400m freestyle and also in the 4x200m freestyle, as well as replicating the silver she won in Tokyo in the 200m freestyle.

She will be aiming for further success in the 800m freestyle, the heats for which began yesterday ahead of the final today which she will be taking part in this evening.

Titmus has caught the eye with her performances, but also with her bright yellow acrylic nails which she is sporting in the pool.

And a debate has arisen among fans discussing them on Reddit, questioning if the length of these nails could be a subtle advantage when it comes to activating the timing pads at either end of the swimming pool.

One posed the question: "How are fingernails like this allowed. I've seen how close the races have been."

However, others appear to have cooled the suggestion these nails could be deemed an advantage.

One posted: "I swam all through with acrylics and you do not wanna be finishing with the tips of your fingernails. Aside from as others have said there's not enough pressure to activate the plate, jamming your finger into the wall nails first HURTS."

Another raised the point: "if fingernails helped, everyone would have long ones, and would also grow out their toenails.

"The tips do not have enough surface area to trigger a touchpad and with the force exerted of coming into a wall on a finger is very uncomfortable."

And another wrote: "Fake nails hitting the wall first are not going to make you win. You have to hit those boards hard to trigger them to stop."