James Magnussen column on Kaylee McKeown, Kyle Chalmers’ Paris Olympic gold-medal chances

This Olympic team will probably have our three most successful Olympians ever swimming in the same team. It’s important we don’t take it for granted, writes JAMES MAGNUSSEN.

If you are swimming fast at this time of the year, you are bound for the Olympic Games stratosphere.

When you look at the results of Kaylee McKeown, Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan and Kyle Chalmers at the national titles, they’re all swimming really well under hard work, which means they are in for a massive year.

KYLE’S FINAL CHALLENGE

Kyle looks like he is in a better position than ever before because he has finally cracked 22 seconds in the 50m freestyle.

Having that extra bit of speed up his sleeve will be a necessity if he is to go sub-47 in the 100m, which is probably what is needed to win this Olympic final.

China’s Pan Zhanle split 22.26sec when he set the world record of 46.80sec at the world titles in Doha. So not only does Kyle have to conquer the skills of American Caeleb Dressell, he’s got to match the first lap speed of teenagers Pan and Romanian David Popovici.

This really is the final progression in the career of Kyle Chalmers. He came into the sport super raw and super talented, just with brute strength and powerful backend to win at his first Olympics.

Kyle Chalmers has a tough ask in Paris. Picture: Getty

When it comes to big races his racing mentality and ability to win is unrivalled. He started with brute strength, he added the killer mindset and now his final challenge is to match the skills and top end speed of the world’s best.

Moving to the Sunshine Coast to train under Ash Delaney will help in that respect.

Ash was a skilful swimmer and spent heaps of time at the Australian Institute of Sport, where they really zoned in on different forms of testing and skill acquisition.

But the big benefit is having 50m specialist Isaac Cooper in that squad because he’s fast-twitch and great at skills. To compare yourself to that daily is a really big asset.

Sometimes when you’re the big fish in a small pond at your home training environment, if you’re just beating everyone at every skill, there is nothing really to aim at.

Caeleb Dressel is arguably the biggest challenge for Chalmers - in a competitive field. Picture: Getty

When I was making my biggest improvements I was trying to keep up with guys like Jayden Hadler, who was incredible at underwater.

Then I had Bobby Hurley, who was a 400m swimmer so I was trying to beat him at back end sets.

It is a massive asset when you have people in your squad with different skills to yours that you can strive at. Isaac can bring that out in Kyle.

If Kyle can add all of those elements together – strength, mindset, speed and skills – we should see him swim faster than ever in Paris.

Anything under 47sec in the final, Kyle wins gold.

KAYLEE THE GREATEST?

I don’t know what Kaylee McKeown’s Olympic program will be, but there is a world where she could go for four individual gold medals with both backstroke and both medley races.

I wouldn’t suggest it, but the way she is swimming it wouldn’t be a stretch to say she is the best swimmer in the world right now. Could she overtake Emma McKeon at this Olympic Games as our most successful Olympian?

Kaylee McKeown could be the best swimmer on the planet heading to Paris. Picture: Getty

Emma and Ian Thorpe have won five gold medals. Kaylee won three gold in Tokyo. She could win four or even five gold medals in Paris, including the two medley relays.

She could be our most successful Olympian after just two Olympics and most of her gold medals will be won in individual events. That is just crazy. And she is still improving, which is wild when she is already at the pinnacle of the sport.

This Olympic team will probably have our three most successful Olympians ever swimming in the same team, which would be Kaylee, Emma and Ariarne Titmus. If you look at Mollie O’Callaghan, you could probably say she will be No.4 in the not too distant future.

It’s important Australians don’t take this Olympics for granted because this team is once in a generation.

Savour these Olympics. Enjoy this meet in Paris because we may never see anything like this again.

We have a propensity in swimming to expect that success is ongoing, but it’s not normal to have this many good swimmers at the one time. We have the best swimmers in the world, some of the best swimmers in history right now, and it’s kind of going unnoticed.

This team doesn’t seem to be getting the fanfare of the Thorpes and Hacketts back in the day, but these are the best athletes on the planet, in the same generation, all swimming for the one country.

Paris is going to be an Olympics to remember.

Originally published as James Magnussen column on Kaylee McKeown, Kyle Chalmers’ Paris Olympic gold-medal chances