James Magnussen: Kyle Chalmers’ incredible relay split shows he is ready for gold

James Magnussen on Kyle Chalmers’ golden prospects for the 100m freestyle after his anchor swim in the silver-medal winning 4x100m freestyle relay.

ON what I saw there is no reason Kyle Chalmers can’t win gold again in the 100m freestyle this week.

When the 4x100m freestyle relay lands on the first day of competition it can make or break your meet. It can make your week a lot harder or easier depending on the result.

Kyle’s 46.59 split as he roared home against American Caleb Dressel was amazing.

In his wildest dreams a swim in the mid-46s would be what he would imagine.

Kyle Chalmers on pool deck in Paris ahead of the freestyle relay. Picture: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

He was struggling with injury at the Olympic trials and it was hard to know exactly where he was at.

Now we know.

Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle broke the world record in his relay leg and Romanian star Romanian David Popovici won’t be far away in the individual race. But Kyle was swimming in the wash of Dressel whereas Pan got clean water from the first 25 metres. It means they are basically comparable swims. So Kyle will be feeling comfortable heading into the 100m freestyle.

Kyle Chalmers and Caeleb Dressel embrace after the 4x100m freestyle relay. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

The plan now for him the semi final? Conserve energy.

Don’t race the race over and over in your head.

Don’t try to think about anyone else’s results or anything else.

Cruise through the heats then switch on for the semi.

In Tokyo he ended up in an outside lane as he won silver, which I believe was a disadvantage.

After what I saw there isn’t any reason he can’t beat Pan and Popovici.

Jack Cartwright, Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Kyle Chalmers celebrate their silver medal. Picture: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

The biggest difference I am noticing in Kyle’s swims is his skills have improved massively. That is the final evolution for most swimmers.

In his turn on that last leg he picked up an arm’s length if not half a body length on Dressel, who was historically the best turner and underwater swimmer in the world..

The night went exactly to plan for the Australian swim team.

They couldn’t have hoped for much more.

Maybe one more medal to Sam Short in the 400m freestyle but other than that, if you had told the 4x100m boys they could get a silver medal they would be stoked.

Elijah Winnington gets his silver medal and the girls were immense.

Now Kyle gets his chance at a second gold medal in the 100m freestyle.