American swimming star Katie Ledecky hits Ariarne Titmus with a sly snub ahead of their battle for Paris Olympics gold

The rivalry between swimming star Katie Ledecky and Aussie Ariarne Titmus has been turned up a notch with the American great slyly snubbing her rival ahead of their battle for Olympic gold.

Ledecky, the most successful female swimmer ever with seven Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship golds, has refused to say the name of Aussie rival Ariarne Titmus during a packed press event in Paris.

The American superstar hasn't beaten the Aussie superfish in the 400m freestyle in five years - and couldn't bring herself to acknowledge Titmus personally.

'I like my chances, but yeah that's me and I feel like I'm prepared and ready to race and that's all you can ask for,' said Ledecky.

'So I'm gonna give it my best shot and it's obviously a great field, top to bottom. Lots of people that have a chance so I'm just gonna put up a great race in the morning and at night and see where that lands me.

'They're great athletes and I've had the chance to race them quite a few times over the years now, especially Summer being in the US training in the US and we've raced a lot the last couple of years.

'It's always fun to race the best and we have the top three times ever in that race so that just makes for a great field, great race.

'Those two have continued to raise the game, raise my game.

'I know that I have to bring my best. I think they know that they have to bring their best.'

Ledecky also said Olympic swimmers are still demanding answers about Chinese doping cases.

'They want transparency, they want further answers to the questions that still remain,' Ledecky told reporters.

'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 that 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.'

In April, The New York Times reported that 23 Chinese swimmers were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago despite testing positive earlier in 2021.

Eleven of the swimmers who tested positive to trimetazidine, a drug banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), have been selected on China's swim team for the Paris Olympics.

WADA accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the test results were due to contamination from a team hotel kitchen.

An independent investigation this month WADA did not mishandle or show favouritism.