Commonwealth Games 2022: Australian athletes left cringing through voiceless anthems
It was a night that should have been celebrated with gusto - five gold medals for our champion swimmers. Instead, our athletes - and fans - cringed in awkward silence on top of the podium.
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You know what the Commonwealth Games needs? A singer on the soundtrack to the national anthems. These old traditional instrumental versions do nothing to entice anyone to sing … and so nobody does.
God Save the Queen was fairly belted out by 30,000 people at the opening ceremony because a professional voice was leading the way. Without Samantha Oxborough, we might have mumbled a few lines at best.
Opening night at the swimming finals had Advance Australia Fair on repeat. Five Australian victories and a few all-Australia podiums had the flag going up the pole every time they took it down … but few of the gold medallists made a peep.
Not because they were protesting or because they never learned the words at school. They looked a little embarrassed when they dared warble a line or two. Because the rest of the joint was quiet as Sunday morning church.
Have a soundtrack with a backing singer. That’ll perk everyone up a bit. Put the words up on the big screen so everyone in Sandwell Aquatics Centre can get involved.
I’d sing the New Zealand anthem if the words were before me. I’d sing Oh, Canada and Flower of Scotland or at least politely join in to anything I was led into. Without a singer to sing with, the anthems came and went with the awkwardness of 5000 strangers standing in a lift.
Elijah Winnington, Ariarne Titmus, Zac Stubblety-Cook, para-swimmer Timothy Hodge and the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay team all won gold medals on a dominant evening in Birmingham.
Let’s be honest. The Commonwealth Games isn’t the dream for the swimmers. It is for the netballers and a host of other athletes here and while none of the Dolphins would have travelled to England if the rewards weren’t worth it, it clearly isn’t the be-all and end-all. Birmingham is a bit of a stepping stone to the 2024 Paris Games. The world titles in Budapest earlier this month held more prestige. But as Titmus alluded to, there’s still something rather nice about this.
Australia won five of the seven finals. The two losses? Hyped as a 15-year-old Canadian sensation, Summer McIntosh proved she really was a 15-year-old Canadian sensation by pulling away in the 400m individual like a young Winx. And New Zealand’s Sophie Pascoe won the 100m freestyle S9 category.
Otherwise, the night was dominated by Advance Australian Fair and green-and-gold tracksuits. Elijah Winnington prepared for his 400m freestyle final by saying a prayer and in the end, Australia was the only nation that had one.
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Titmus eased to the 200m freestyle gold ahead of Australian teammates Mollie O’Callaghan and Madison Wilson. She appeared quietly pleased at the presentation ceremony rather than wildly jubilant before echoing Winnington: “I was happy I had just enough to get by. I’m happy with how I raced. I think this meet is all about racing. Commonwealth Games just has a different vibe to other meets. I think it’s about who’s toughest here and who knows how to deal with the circumstances. I’m happy just to get the win.”
It was mildly subdued in the arena until an Englishman fired up. Stubblety-Cook was never going to lose the 200m breaststroke final, but when James Wilby gave him a run for his money, the roof suddenly blew of the joint. Unfortunately for Wilby and the patrons, they too had to listen to Advance Australia Fair. You could have heard a pin drop.
The final event on the program was the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay. William Yang, Kyle Chalmers, Mollie O’Callaghan and Emma McKeon trailed the English quartet until the third leg. Go, Mollie O, go, and then McKeon brought it home.
She stood at the opposite end of the line to Chalmers for the poolside interview. Don’t ask. Everyone stood for Stubblety-Cook’s presentation and the anthem. Only the music could be heard. Ditto for the relay.
Lizard-loving nerd to alpha dog
- Julian Linden
King Kyle is back.
Super fit and more motivated than ever, the alpha male of the Aussie swim team is firing on all cylinders again as he prepares for the Commonwealth Games.
Just two months after he walked out of the Australian trials for mental health reasons following a public spat with the media over all the attention given to pop star Cody Simpson, Chalmers has rediscovered his mojo. The heavily tattooed sprint star is prowling the pool deck as the top dog in an alpha crew of super-confident young swimmers — often making a grand entrance at training sessions after all the other athletes have arrived.
And that should sound a warning to his rivals in Birmingham because the Big Tuna has big ambitions, starting with ending his six-year jinx on the international stage.
The South Australian was just a teenager starting out on his career when he sensationally won the 100m freestyle gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Since then, he hasn’t won another gold in his signature event at either the Olympics, world championships or Commonwealth Games, but that could change as early as this week .
There’s been some mitigating circumstances as he’s battled injuries and some formidable opponents, but everything has fallen into place perfectly for him and he’s determined to finally get back to the top of the podium.
“I definitely think it’s a motivator for sure,” Australia’s head coach Rohan Taylor said. “Athletes of his standard who can perform at a high level, that’s their ultimate aim.
“Every time they get on the blocks, that’s what they want to do. So I have no doubts that’s what he’s looking for.”
Both in the water and on dry land, Chalmers has an unmistakeable swagger about him right now that oozes confidence. Once known as much for his reptile collection as his exploits in the pool, he has gone from lizard-loving nerd to snake-hipped beefcake.
Simpson may have stolen his ex-girlfriend and the media spotlight, but within the Australian team, Chalmers is still the top dog and that’s the way he likes it.
His regular training partners Matt Temple, Zac Incerti, Madi Wilson and Meg Harris, are all part of his inner-circle so are never far from him when he’s strutting around at team camps.
The group keeps mostly to themselves, often training in a separate lane to the rest of the Dolphins team, but welcome anyone who wants to join them.
Grayson Bell — who has a similar chest tattoo to King Kyle — has been spotted training with them in the Birmingham Aquatic Centre while some of the younger team members have gone to Chalmers for advice.
The Chalmers crew is reminiscent of the group of male swimmers who coalesced around James Magnussen heading into the London 2012 Olympics or the chest-thumping Aussies Ian Thorpe, Michael Klim, Chris Fydler and Ashley Callus, who defied the might of the US in the 4x100m relay at Sydney 2000 after Gary Hall Jnr suggested he would “smash them like guitars”.
Team staff have been greatly impressed by the way Chalmers has been mentoring some of the up and coming stars, including Sam Short, Isaac Cooper and even Elijah Winnington.
Taking a leaf out of the book of his great American rival Caeleb Dressel, Chalmers has also become more vocal on social media, regularly showing off his muscle-packed body, which he describes as a “war rig” ready for action.
He’s also been posting pictures of his “gang” as well as cryptic messages about how focused he is to perform well after being upset at what he considered to be negative media reporting of his decision to start racing butterfly — the same stroke that Simpson swims.
If it sounds and looks cocky or arrogant, Chalmers isn’t worried one bit because his spirits are soaring and for good reason.
Although he didn’t swim the individual 100m freestyle at last month’s world championships in Budapest because he only recently came back from shoulder surgery, his split times in the relays were incredible as he led Australia to gold in the 4x100m mixed freestyle and silver in the 4x100m men’s freestyle.
Had he been in the race, Chalmers may well have won the individual world title that has so far eluded him after Dressel pulled out at the last minute.
Romanian teenage whiz-kid David Popovici won the gold in the exact time Chalmers posted to win at Rio in 2016 (47.58), but the 24-year-old Australian went as low as 47.08 when finishing second at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Taylor said watching Popovici — who is just 17 and tipped to be the next global superstar of the sport — win not one but two world titles after he also claimed gold in the 200m, will be just the spur for Chalmers to send a message that he’s still around.
“He really only had a short preparation heading into the trials and the worlds, but he’s a consistent block now,” Taylor said.
“Personally, looking at what they did at worlds and him seeing it first-hand, being able now to maybe put his time down and comparison is quite a motivator.”
Chalmers remained in Europe after the world titles to fine tune his preparations for Birmingham and Taylor said he was in mint condition, not only for his freestyle races but also his butterfly, after he missed the semi-finals in Budapest.
“I’ve just seen a real consistent progression from him. For him just to be with his training group and with his coach has been pretty good for him,” Taylor said.
“He’s at another level, because he’s had that run of consistency. He’s training not just freestyle but also butterfly, which he’s clearly talented at.
“He’s had a track record of being very good in the butterfly as an age-grouper coming through.
“There’s times where the butterfly just didn’t kind of match up with the freestyle, so he didn’t really prioritise it, but he definitely wants to improve on what he did at worlds.
“Don’t forget that was a heat swim, at a world championships, and it’s easy to have a slightly flat heat swim, but Kyle is someone who rises every time he goes up a level, to semis and finals, so I think that opportunity will be presented for him here.”
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Originally published as Commonwealth Games 2022: Australian athletes left cringing through voiceless anthems
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