Commonwealth Games 2022: Kyle Chalmers wins 100m freestyle, dad Brett Chalmers speaks out
Kyle Chalmers’ dad Brett has accused Swimming Australia of failing to protect its athletes while also hitting back at Johanna Griggs over comments relating to his son.
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Kyle Chalmers’ father has broken down in response to his son’s recent experience with the media and slammed Swimming Australia for not adequately protecting its athletes.
He also fired back at former Australian swimmer turned TV presenter Johanna Griggs over her comments relating to his son.
Speaking to Mix 102.3 in Adelaide on Tuesday morning, Brett Chalmers said his son’s pressure had been relieved by his victory in the Men’s 100m freestyle hours earlier.
In an emotional interview, Brett said it had been extremely difficult being in Adelaide while his son struggled mentally with allegations of a “love triangle” within the Australian swim team.
“Kyle’s a guy that holds it pretty close to his chest,” he said.
There’s no doubt it’s been tough, it’s been tough on myself being 15,000km away, I can’t imagine what it’s been like for him not to have family and friends or close relatives around him.
“He’s got some good teammates and a really good coach so I’m sure they rallied around him and gave him the love he needed.”
Breaking down in tears, Brett said Swimming Australia had “failed massively” in protecting its athletes during the ordeal.
“I look at it and think if it was in a workplace and you’re being asked the same question over and over again it’s a form of bullying and harassment and it’s not condoned and it’s not accepted,” he said.
“You’d be pulled into the manager’s office and if you don’t stop you’d probably lose your job, whereas these people get away with it, they destroy people’s lives and livelihoods, it’s pretty hard.
“I just don’t get it, why? I guess sporting organisations and sporting clubs allow this to happen.
“They (Swimming Australia) failed hugely, and they’ve allowed the media to dictate the questions and kept going on about it — they’ve failed to look after their athletes.”
It’s been a turbulent few days for Chalmers, who on Sunday evening said the previous 12 hours had been the toughest of his career. After helping Australia win the 4x100m relax, his post-race interview quickly shifted focus on the drama surrounding his relationships with Olympic legend Emma McKeon and popstar-turned-swimmer Cody Simpson.
Brett was also less than impressed with suggestions from Griggs that Chalmers had been feeding the headlines he is rallying against.
In an interview on Monday, the former Olympian said:
“The only person who is going to potentially derail (his campaign) … could be Kyle himself,” Griggs said on Monday.
“He seems to be feeding it, which is the ironic situation with all these sorts of things.
“You can’t just expect the headlines to always be great. You have to accept that occasionally they might be about other people and sometimes they may not necessarily show you in the same light.
“Do I think they (the headlines) are affecting Emma McKeon? Absolutely not.
“She’s amazing, right. So she’s proven, without question, that she is able to compartmentalise whatever’s going on.”
However, Brett fired back at that suggestion.
“Kyle’s not the one mentioning it. That’s the hardest thing,” he said.
“Everywhere you look, it’s in the media. People like her (Griggs) are the ones that are bringing it up all the time.
“This whole, ‘Kyle’s getting back at Cody’. No it’s not. Kyle’s his own person, he’s an athlete that’s trained for three quarters of his life in swimming to get to where he is.
“Let’s put it to bed, get over it and let’s celebrate the successes our athletes make.
“Let’s just stop all the rubbish that they talk about all the time with their personal lives. That’s their personal life. Do we ask Johanna Griggs about her personal life? Nah. Do we care about it? No. So why do we make it a big deal because it’s an athlete?”
COMMENT: KYLE’S FIRST PRIORITY AFTER THE GAMES
Julian Linden
The only person who can stop Kyle Chalmers returning to the peak of world swimming is himself.
He has all the physical tools to remain a force in men’s freestyle sprint for years to come because he has the heart of a lion and the ability to produce his best on the biggest stages.
After winning the Olympic gold medal as a schoolkid in 2016 it’s only bad luck that’s stopped Chalmers from getting to the very top again, as he’s battled injuries and run into a red-hot Caeleb Dressel.
He didn’t beat the best of the best to win the 100 metre freestyle gold at the Commonwealth Games but the dominant way in which he won was proof he can deliver when it matters.
As an Olympic champion, Chalmers has nothing more to prove in the sport but he has the ability to win again, even though the challengers are coming thick and fast.
His big rival at the 2024 Paris Olympics is likely to be Romanian teenage whizkid David Popovici, who is the current world champion in both 100m and 200m and has been swimming faster times than anyone else at his age.
He’s just 17, younger than Chalmers was when he won at Rio.
But Popovici is not Chalmers’ biggest hurdle. The unanswered question - and the one that is most critical to his wellbeing - is how he’s coping mentally.
He’s been very candid about the emotional struggles he’s faced since being thrust into the spotlight at such a young age but it reached a tipping point in Birmingham.
He received a lot of backslapping support on his Instagram page when he lashed out at media reports of a rift in the team after he didn’t publicly congratulate Emma McKeon when they joined forces to win gold in the mixed relay.
Both swimmers insisted there was no problem but as any public relations 101 student will attest, the optics after the race were not great. Every photographer at the Birmingham Aquatic Centre was ready to capture the moment they embraced but it didn’t happen.
Rightly or wrongly, Chalmers’ continued rants on social media against the press fuelled concerns about the state of his mind.
His first priority when he gets home should be to get all the support he needs because swimming pools don’t provide the clearest reflections he needs before figuring out what’s next.
‘HARD TO ENJOY’: CHALMERS EXPLAINS POST-RACE GESTURE
Julian Linden in Birmingham
The King finally has a new crown and this one fits perfectly.
Six years after he won the Olympic title in Rio as a rookie teenager, Kyle Chalmers has a second big international 100m freestyle gold medal for his trophy cabinet.
His victory in the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday morning was over in a flash – 47.51 seconds to be exact – but it was a long time coming and the relief was clear even if his celebration was uncharacteristically subdued.
When the race was over, he climbed on the lane rope and put a single finger to his lips, as if to silence any doubters.
“I thought about it before. Normally I do a bit more powerful celebration after a win but that one probably means more than giving a fist pump or flexing the muscles,” he said.
“Instead of probably enjoying the moment, it’s almost a big sense of relief, to be honest with you. It’s so nice to get the win.”
Winning gold at the Commonwealth Games may not carry the same kudos as the Olympics or world championships but Chalmers earned this one the hard way and it shows he’s back on track for a strong showing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he will face tougher opposition in American Caeleb Dressel and Romanian whizkid David Popovici.
Chalmers still beat a strong field to win in Birmingham that included Tom Dean and Duncan Scott, the Olympic gold and silver medallists over 200m.
And the Big Tuna did it with real authority.
He made a quick getaway, leaving the blocks after 0.70 and sprinting through the first lap in 22.87.
A great front runner, he was never going to lose from there and he covered the closing lap in 24.64, extending his lead to win by 0.38 from Dean, swimming in the lane next to him, who won the silver.
The bronze went to Scott, who won the race four years ago at the Gold Coast but was no match for Chalmers this time.
“It’s special,” Chalmers said. “Four years ago, I came second by such a small margin and it’s something that’s motivated me for a long period of time.
“Getting the gold medal is just a big relief that it’s done and I was able to do it.
But what the stat sheets don’t show is the emotional turbulence Chalmers has been through this week after reports of a rift in the team following the mixed freestyle relay, which included Chalmers and Emma McKeon.
Both swimmers strongly denied there were any problems in the camp, with Chalmers angrily dismissing the claims as “lies” saying ‘they were damaging to his mental health.
He’s received overwhelming support since then and said that helped him continue when he felt so low that he wanted to quit.
“I just hope no one has to go through what I’ve had to over the last 48 hours,” he told reporters in the mixed zone.
“For me this last 48 hours has been hell. It’s been an emotional roller coaster.
“Even speaking to my coach (Peter Bishop) before the race, I almost started crying and I’m not an emotional person.”
Chalmers also opened up to Channel 7’s poolside reporter Cate Campbell about his mental battles over the past week.
“It is hard to enjoy the moment when all that has happened has gone on. It makes it a challenging time. I am grateful that I was able to block it out enough to stand up and win.
“I got to Facetime my brother which meant the world to me. Today my mum messaged me saying that the army would let my brother watch the race. For me, that is all the motivation that I need to know that my brother, my best mate, is watching my race.
“I do it for him every time I go down to take my marks, I have got my brother’s name written on my foot.
“I appreciate all the support that I have had. I would not have been able to get through it, yesterday there were points where I thought I would not continue one. That just lets the media win.
“For me, I had to stand up and do it, not for myself but for everybody at home, everybody going through similar things, I hope I can inspire and I will continue this conversation.”
Chalmers now has three gold medals in Birmingham and could end up with five with two more races to go.
“I was hoping to be on the next flight out of here,” he said. “But I’ve still got a job to do in the relays for my country.”
SWIM GREAT BACKS CHALMERS DECISION TO WITHDRAW
Kyle Chalmers withdrew from the 100 metres butterfly at the Commonwealth Games, boosting pop star Cody Simpson’s chances of winning another medal in Birmingham, while getting a thumbs up from the legends of the sport welcoming his decision to focus on his strengths.
Simpson has already won one gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, in the 4x100m freestyle relay, and has a shot at winning one or possibly two more medals in the 100m butterfly and medley relay.
He finished third in his 100m butterfly heat on Monday night in 52.47 to qualify fifth fastest overall for the semi-finals, one spot behind his Australian teammate Matt Temple.
Australian head coach Rohan Taylor said Chalmers had dropped the butterfly event from his schedule to save his energy for Tuesday morning’s 100m freestyle final, where he is odds-on to win gold and end his six-year drought in major competitions.
Chalmers swam a blistering 47.36 seconds in the semi final, fast enough to win gold at the world championships in Budapest.
“He is pulling out, he’s focusing just on the 100m free,” Taylor said.
“The fly, he decided last night in conversation with (coach Peter Bishop) Bish that he wants to have a real crack at the 100m free which is great.
“The ‘fly is probably just going to get in the way of that.”
One of the world’s best freestyle sprinters, Chalmers surprised everyone when he announced two months ago that he wanted to start swimming butterfly, a stroke he had competed in at age group level but not as a senior.
It fuelled speculation he was only taking it up because he was peeved at all the media coverage Simpson was getting for making the team, though Chalmers has refuted that.
Chalmers had originally said he was only going to swim butterfly at the Commonwealth Games but changed his mind at the last minute and took up his place at last month’s world championships at the expense of Simpson.
But when he got to Budapest, he pulled out of the 50m fly then failed to make it past the heats of the 100m fly.
He did not enter the 50m event in Birmingham but did not make the final so his decision not to race the 100m was not a surprise to anyone after plenty of former stars urged him to focus on freestyle.
“It’s not unexpected. It’s what I would do in his position,” Cate Campbell said.
“He’s obviously had a really big couple of days and he really needs to focus on where it counts.
“He said he’s done the butterfly for a bit of fun but he’s now here to focus.”
Without the Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel or the current world champion, Romanian teenage sensation David Popovici, to challenge him, Chalmers is considered a sure thing to win the gold in the 100m freestyle – his first major title in the event since his shock victory at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Although his butterfly times have been below this best, his performances in freestyle have been top class and Olympic legend Ian Thorpe said he fully expected Chalmers to cash in and end his long drought.
“It shows that Kyle is in good form,” Thorpe said.
“With what’s gone on and the kind of pressure that’s come with what’s being said at the moment for him, he’s found something extra and he has something to prove. And I think it’s something to prove to himself as well.”
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Originally published as Commonwealth Games 2022: Kyle Chalmers wins 100m freestyle, dad Brett Chalmers speaks out
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