Kyle Chalmers says sports psych has helped him re-set after Rio Olympics and heart surgery

KYLE Chalmers says working with a sports psychologist is helping him cope with life after the Rio Olympics and re-set his goals to return to the top step of the podium in Tokyo.

Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers will race the national short course swimming championships in Adelaide this week. Picture: Brenton Edwards (AAP).

KYLE Chalmers says working with a sports psychologist is helping him cope with life after the Rio Olympics and re-set his goals to return to the top step of the podium in Tokyo.

The 19-year-old 100m freestyle gold medallist will have his first serious race meet since heart surgery in June in the national short course championships in Adelaide starting Thursday.

The procedure to correct a racing heart forced him to miss the world championships in Budapest in July but he was still watching from the stands which whet the appetite for him to jump back into training.

“It was tough watching,’’ he said. “It definitely inspired me to get back in the pool and train as hard as I can leading in to Comm Games because you see Caleb Dressel go 47.1 (seconds) and I beat him the year before so it puts the fire back in the belly that I want to be the top swimmer in the world,” Chalmers told The Advertiser.

“It’s going to be a bit of a journey to get there but that’s my goal and I’ll work as hard as I can.”

Part of that work has been regular Skype and Facetime chats with his sports psychologist Elise Bateman who is based in Queensland.

“She’s even come down here to see me,” Chalmers said.

“She has always been the Australian junior team psych so we formed that relationship there and I really enjoy her and that’s the main thing, having someone you feel comfortable talking to.

“It has been a massive change to life since the Olympic Games so she has helped me stay on track with that and set goals leading forward with what I can do.

“If you’re having a bad day or training is not going the best, it’s good to have someone to talk to. We train such a ridiculous amount of times a week so you’re not going to have a good session every day.

“So it’s good you can have someone to talk to who is not your coach and you can get everything off your chest and start fresh again which I find really helpful.”

Chalmers said that although he didn’t compete at the world titles in July he still got plenty from the experience.

“I’ve never really followed swimming so it was good to see how other people prepare for racing and how they handle crowds and pressure.

“It was the most nervous I’ve been watching Cam McEvoy swim. Cam is one of my great mates and before the freestyle final I watched him warm up, then he want off to marshalling and I was in the stands and really nervous wanting him to do well.

“I trained in the comp pool through the world champs and really enjoyed being over there.”

Chalmers then raced the Eindhoven World Cup and in a charity meet in Rome after being hospitalised with gastro.

“I went in at night and was out the next morning, bit of a shock ending up in a hospital in a foreign country (but) it was nothing serious at all,” he said.

“After six weeks (off due to heart surgery) it was a bit of a shock to the system, so when I got to Europe I was still unfit and to go 49.0 long course in Rome I was stoked with that.

“Our goal was to go 49 and to almost go 48 I was very happy.”

He also said his heart surgery had so far been a success.

“I didn’t have any signs regularly when I had it anyway. I could go through 12 months feeling completely normal then it would happen randomly.

“But nothing played up over there and I haven’t had any issues since the surgery so hopefully it’s been all sorted.”

As he prepares for the Commonwealth Games trials next year Chalmers said he had become more professional with his dryland training.

“Leading into Rio I didn’t do a whole lot of gym. I wasn’t overly motivated in the gym to do much, but coming back from heart surgery we’ve got a new gym coach.

“About five days after surgery I was back in the gym. I was doing some stuff on the treadmill and bike to keep my fitness up.

“The new gym coach has really motivated me to push myself and apply myself, so I definitely have got a little bit stronger because I am doing the two gym sessions a week to the best of my ability, rather than just going in and having a joke with the boys.”

Chalmers will train through the national short course championships this week while racing the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle and potentially the 100m butterfly as well.

“Butterfly was my best event growing up, at the 2014 Comm Games trials I won a silver medal in the 50m butterfly. That was my breakthrough swim because I was 15 at the time,” he said.

“The 100m butterfly was my first national age medal as a 12-year-old, I got silver. So growing up butterfly was my main thing.

“Obviously I prioritise my freestyle now but when I’ve been trying to build fitness butterfly is really good for that. So I’ve been doing a little bit more in training than normal.

“And it’s always good to race in a different event and mix things up, so I’ll have my three main freestyle events and have a fun event in the 100m butterfly.

“I’m feeling pretty good and pretty fit which is good. I guess it is a training week, I’m still in the building phase so I know my preparation isn’t going to be my best one.

“It’s just training and getting that race fitness back and I’m excited.”

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Originally published as Kyle Chalmers says sports psych has helped him re-set after Rio Olympics and heart surgery