Commonwealth Games 2022: Kyle Chalmers adding fuel to media storm, says swimming legend
Kyle Chalmers is adding fuel to the fire he's trying to squash every time he opens his mouth. Will it ultimately cost him a gold medal?
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If Kyle Chalmers wins the 100m freestyle gold medal at the Commonwealth Games it should go straight to the pool room next to his greatest accomplishments in swimming.
Nothing will ever top the gold medal he won for Australia at Rio in 2016, but if King Kyle is able to pull off a victory in Birmingham, that deserves to sit alongside his historic Olympic breakthrough.
Chalmers has swum at bigger events than the Commonwealth Games, but has never faced the same level of scrutiny and turbulence that he’s endured this week, so a win would rank among the sweetest of his stellar career.
But Chalmers is also the only person capable of derailing what would be one of Australian swimming's most memorable gold medals, according to former Commonwealth Games swimmer turned broadcaster Johanna Griggs.
The commentator, speaking on Sydney's Triple M Breakfast show, believes Chalmers is adding fuel to the narrative he is trying to squash.
“The only person who is going to potentially derail - could be Kyle himself, he seems to be feeding it,” Griggs said.
“Do I think they (the headlines) are affecting Emma McKeon? Absolutely not.
“You can’t just expect the headlines to always be great. You have to accept that occasionally sometimes they’re going to be about other people and sometimes they might not necessarily show you in the same light.
“It’s the reality of sport. I’m kind of hoping that Kyle stops feeding it. I guess he’s feeling incredibly swamped at the moment and not coping with it.
“Every time he mentions it, he makes it a bigger story. Whatever it takes for him to do, I think he will calm down a lot.”
Standing 1.94m tall and packed with muscles covered in ink, Chalmers is an imposing man in every sense, but he’s also been very open about the mental health issues he’s faced this past week.
An old-fashioned racer who leaves nothing in the tank whenever he dives in, he gave a harrowing insight into just how deeply hurt he says he’s been by his spat with the media, saying that he didn’t even want to start in his favourite race.
“It’s probably one of the biggest challenges I’ve had to face,” he said.
“For me, it took all my courage and all my energy just to stand behind the blocks and swim”.
Anyone who has seen Chalmers in action before — whether it’s in individual races or flying the flag for Australia in the relays — knows that he becomes a different beast the moment he hits the water.
He’s as ferocious as the Lion King tattoos on his bulging arms and he proved that yet again by posting a blistering time of 47.36 seconds to win his semi-final.
In his post-race interview, swim champ Cate Campbell referred to his tattoo and the bravery he showed in putting down such a performance just hours after a public blow-up about the media.
The emphatic win was like a giant up-yours to his critics and his doubters — and now he just has to repeat the performance in the final.
Chalmers’ time was the second fastest by anyone in the world this year and would have won him the gold medal at last month’s world championships in Budapest.
But more than that, it was a statement swim — a message to his supporters that he’s out of his cage and back on the prowl.
“I don’t have anything else to say, it’s rough,” he said.
“It’s been a whirlwind. It’s nice to swim fast. I think it’s easy to put on a brave face and smile. It’s hard, it’s very hard.
“I’ve had three heart surgeries, I have a chain that is broken because my heart was holding me back and now it’s fixed. So yeah, that’s a special one for me.”
The rest of the Australian team, watching from the stands, went bananas when Chalmers climbed out of the pool, beaming after what he said was the toughest 24 hours of his life.
They had all rallied around him after he revealed how upset he was and the Big Tuna said it was their support that helped get him through.
“The team has been amazing,” he said.
“I just wanted to put my headphones on and switch off and not talk, (but) all of my teammates, coaches and staff coming up and saying they are there for me has been really special. I wouldn’t have been able to get through it without my teammates.“I’m not a robot. We have feelings, we have emotions, we’re no different than anyone else. We struggle a lot, mental health is a huge thing in sport.”
CHALMERS: IT’S HARD FOR ME TO STAND UP AND SWIM
By Jacquelin Magnay
Kyle Chalmers revealed it took all of his courage and energy to turn up for the heats of the men’s 100m freestyle at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games after a tumultuous few days as some experienced former swimmers have expressed concern about his mental health.
The Olympic champion had just finished second in his heat, recording a time of 48.98 to progress to the semi finals, when he made an emotional outpouring on television and then to the press in the mixed zone.
Chalmers, the fastest swimmer in the team said “I feel safe” when he is standing on the blocks with some of the his training partners and close swim mates. He said he had spoken to his brother to get through a tough time, and was also taking heart from the support from his training partners.
“ I love the guys I get to race against, I love the guys…the guys that I love and guys that motivate me in standing on the blocks next to (defending Commonwealth games champion) Duncan (Scott), it helps me feel a little bit more safe having a mate next to me.”
Olympic superstar Ian Thorpe said Chalmers doesn’t feel as though he is in control of the narrative around his own story.
“The things that I have read and saying that you’re at breaking point, rock bottom kind of area, this is concerning,’’ said Thorpe.
Cate Campbell, who interviewed Chalmers on Channel 7 said “Kyle sometimes uses the things that are said about him to fuel that fire within him, but it might have now reached a breaking point where there’s too much pile-on.’’
Chalmers has been in the middle of a media storm, which started on day one of the Games when he didn’t congratulate his team mate and former girlfriend Emma McKeon immediately after their gold medal success in the mixed relay. That apparent tension was diffused by both swimmers who said there were some positive words spoken later on.
But after spraying the media after the record breaking efforts of the mens 4x100m relay on day two, Chalmers then said on Channel 7 that “It is hard to get up and swim this morning. It’s probably one of the biggest challenges I’ve had to face. I think media the impact it has on athletes and mental health. For me it took all my courage and all my energy just to stand behind the blocks and swim this morning.’’
He added: “It is not something that I wanted to do, it’s not something that I wanted to go through, to be honest with you, I’ve been so excited for this moment for such a long period of time and been working hard to be here for such a long time. For how it’s unfolded, yeah, definitely makes me question my future in the sport.”
Chalmers insisted that there was no conflict within the team.
“As much as the media want to make up, there is conflict on the team, there is zero, we’re such a tight team, as you know, we’ve been away for such a long time now we are like brothers and sisters. I enjoy being part of the team, I enjoy being a Senior part of the team.”
Thorpe said that he hoped the furore would die down to help Chalmers mental health.
“When he says he’s almost at breaking point it’s almost as though it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back,’’ said Thorpe.
“We don’t know the back story. Kyle has spoken about struggles he’s had with mental health. I have done a similar thing as well and know a lot of athletes do go through this.
“I hope it can quieten down for him because we’re looking at the priorities in all of this. Number one is his mental health. Then the second part of it is we want him to perform well and then the third part of it is working out what the relationship with the media looks like,” Thorpe said.
FIERY POOLSIDE BLOW-UP TO GALVANISE SWIM TEAM
By Julian Linden
Day two of the Commonwealth Games swim meet started like any other — but it ended in two massive team gold medals and a fiery press conference with its star swimmer.
It may well be the flashpoint that reunites the Australian swim team’s Games’ campaign.
After two days of speculation of a rift in the team, the Dolphins responded the best way it knows how — by winning races in record time.
And then Kyle Chalmers blew-up at the post-race press conference accusing the media of making up stories about troubles in the team and his apparent snub of his ex-girlfriend and relay teammate Emma McKeon. In emotional outbursts at the conference and later on his social media accounts, Chalmers denied there was a rift and spoke about the pressures the coverage was having on the team. “We win almost every single medal last night and again tonight and that’s the storyline. I think the media really need to start to grow up and focus on the good things,” he said at the conference.
And later on his social media: “I don’t know how many more times it needs to be said by not only me but my fellow teammates, but these fake storyline’s are doing more harm than good.
“I have dedicated my life to this sport and representing my country. I am your poster boy from 2016 and I’m your villain in 2022. And for no reason other than some people in the media needing to justify their pay cheques and knowing that false headlines create clicks and earn them money.
“But do you know what it does to the humans you write about? It breaks them down little by little, and tonight is the breaking point. Up until this point I’ve tried to just keep on moving forward but tonight I ask that you please stop writing these false headlines otherwise my time in the sport will be finished.
“ I don’t swim for this, I didn’t get into the sport to have to deal with this. I swim to inspire and I swim because I love my sport and it gives me purpose.
“No matter what I do these days, the media wants to jump on when I have done nothing but give all to this country. I stand and talk to you guys after every race. Bad, good, I’ve always stopped to give you guys the time of day.
“There’s going to be a time when I definitely stop doing that if that’s going to be the case. I said exactly what I needed to do last night, I did the race, we won gold, everyone won gold and focused on the positives.”
He was supported on social media by other swimmers last night, including another of his exes Madi Wilson, who warned about the impact the coverage would have on the mental health of the team.
“Tonight I sat on the bus with 5 other Commonwealth Games gold medallists, all deflated. We need to be more aware that we are people,” Wilson wrote.
“Some of the lines of questioning is hurting my teammates and enough is enough.”
Earlier in the day, EIijah Winnington also defended Chalmers, denying there was a split in the team.
“All this hype over the love triangle and all that I think it’s just hype,” he said.
“There’s nothing like that actually in the team. And that’s I guess the unfortunate thing is because, you know, lies are getting spread when it’s not true.
“I don’t think it’s about that. I think it’s just more saving respect for Cody (Simpson), I think if Kyle had have done either which way he would have been painted as the bad guy. So I mean, I think it’s just a tough situation to be in. You know, we’ve all had exes in the past and we’ve all we’ve never really had to them work with the colleague of the new boyfriend.
“There’s definitely no tension and it’s amicable if anything on the team so it’s just a shame that it’s getting painted out that way.”
It is understood angry Australian officials and team leaders met after the session to console swimmers and events of the night.
The were discussions that some swimmers may refuse some interviews after the races.
The controversy may also have a huge bearing on whether the Dolphins can repeat their stunning success from last year’s stunning success at the Tokyo Olympics in two years’ time.
Chalmers may think this current storm is all about him, but it’s really about the entire Australian team because these are the flashpoint moments that either unite or divide the squad. There’s always been dramas and rifts within Australian swimming but the fortunes of the team always come down to how they respond to adversity.
The early signs suggest this latest soap opera is already having a galvanising effect on the team.
When Chalmers came out swinging, the response from the rest of the team was magnificent as they blew the opposition apart to win gold medals in both the men’s and women’s relays.
The big bear hugs he shared with his teammates on the pool deck – and the comments by other team members all suggest they publicly have his back.
The swimmers may not see it right now, but the pressure they’re feeling in Birmingham is nothing to what they’ll be under in Paris in 2024 but it’s a great test of their resolve because nothing decides the fate of teams more than when the chips are down.
Accused in the past of being pampered poodles, in London in 2012 and again in Rio in 2016, things quickly unravelled at the first sign of trouble.
But in Tokyo last year, in the midst of a global pandemic where they had every excuse in the world to underperform, the Dolphins toughed it out and reaped the rewards – winning a record nine Olympic gold medals.
After London and Rio, that could have killed the team’s vibe forever, but it strengthened it and the same thing is happening now in Birmingham. This Dolphins team is too good to be knocked off course by one prominent member believing the media has it in for him, when they don’t. The truth is, Chalmers is actually a media favourite.
Chalmers is threatening to walk away from swimming.
The Australian team hopes he doesn’t because he still has a lot to offer the sport, both as a competitor and a team leader, but with a new wave of youngsters snapping at his heels what happens next will be up to him, not the media.
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Originally published as Commonwealth Games 2022: Kyle Chalmers adding fuel to media storm, says swimming legend
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