A hungry-again Ariarne Titmus is salivating at the prospect of being sandwiched between two swim stars.
Titmus opens Australia's campaign at the pool at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, on Sunday in arguably the most anticipated race of the meet.
The women's 400 metre freestyle features Titmus, the Olympic champion over the distance, American legend Katie Ledecky and Canada's fresh world record holder Summer McIntosh.
The 16-year-old McIntosh broke Titmus' world record at the Canadian trials last March.
Titmus had broken the event's benchmark of Ledecky, a seven-time Olympic gold medallist rated the greatest women's distance freestyler, in May last year.
"I always try to pretend I'm hunting, I feel like that way you're more hungry," Titmus said.
"But going into this meet. I feel like it's quite an even keel ... I'd love to be a fan of swimming right now, watching the 400 freestyle is going to be unbelievable.
"There's going to be three women hopefully go close to the world record or breaking the world record.
"I feel just very blessed to be a part of that."
American 26-year-old Ledecky won the event at the worlds a decade ago. And again in 2015 and 2017, punctuated by capturing Olympic gold in the race in 2016.
But Tasmanian-born Titmus pipped her for gold at the 2019 worlds and then again at the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.
At last year's worlds, Ledecky triumphed - but Titmus skipped those championships to focus on the Commonwealth Games, where the Australian beat McIntosh.
McIntosh's emergence has further increased the hype but Australia's head swim coach Rohan Taylor rated their showdown in Japan akin to the entree before the main course - next year's Paris Olympics.
"You have got some interesting narratives," Taylor told AAP.
"You have got the young one who is a world record holder.
"You have got the veteran in Ledecky who wants to get back to the top.
"And you have got Arnie (Titmus) who has just been recently bumped from the top.
"What the outcome of worlds will be will set us for a really, really exciting Paris final, which is the one that they will be aiming more, that is the main thing.
"This is just a bit of an opportunity to get that experience of racing each other.
"I can't speak for Arnie and what she is thinking but I know she is a highly competitive athlete who will want to ... come out in top."
Also Sunday, Australia's Elijah Winnington will defend his 400m freestyle world title while the Dolphins' men's and women's 4x100 freestyle relayers will be among the favourites in their medal races.
