Kyle Chalmers is on the verge of Olympic swimming history at Rio
KYLE Chalmers is borrowing Cameron McEvoy’s coach and Ian Thorpe’s playbook as he attempts to pull off an Olympic miracle in the 100m freestyle final this morning.
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KYLE Chalmers is borrowing Cameron McEvoy’s coach and Ian Thorpe’s playbook as he attempts to pull off an Olympic miracle in the 100m freestyle final this morning.
The 18-year-old South Australian is tantalisingly close to what would rank as one of the most memorable Olympic swimming stories of all-time with the towering teen second fastest qualifier for today’s 100m final with a time of 47.88s.
If he can pull off victory he would be the youngest male Olympic gold medallist since 17-year-old Ian Thorpe won 400m freestyle gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Standing in his path is the reigning Olympic champion Nathan Adrian of the USA who was fastest qualifier in 47.83s and his own Australian teammate McEvoy who was third quickest in the semi-finals in 47.93s.
It’s the King v Cam v the Kid.
With his usual coach Peter Bishop not named on the Australian team for Rio, Chalmers has been paired with McEvoy’s mentor Richard Scarce and is sharing rooms with McEvoy too.
It’s not unusual for swimmers to share coaches on team trips, but rarely do they go head-to-head for gold medals.
But each will enter today’s final with completely different race strategies. McEvoy will need to get out exceptionally fast and be near the lead at the turn so he can have clear water in his run home.
Chalmers, much like Thorpe with his powerful last 50m, won’t care if he is last at the turn knowing he can hold his top line speed longer than anyone else in the final.
With US star Adrian potentially dragging Chalmers out in the first 50m, the teen superfish just might be within striking distance of an Olympic victory.
“It’s very exciting, I probably didn’t expect to get through to the final especially with that time,” Chalmers said.
“At the moment I’m probably trying to wind down and block (the idea of winning) completely out of my mind otherwise I’ll be up all night. I need a good sleep. That is my main focus right now.
“I will swim to my strength and my strength is my back end. I’m not worried where I turn at the wall I know I’ve got that back end.
“Those guys might be half a second in front of me at the turn but I work my butt off to get to that wall at the end.
“I’m happy where I’m at, tomorrow won’t be about the first 50m.”
McEvoy however is unflustered about where he sits right now. It doesn’t matter he isn’t fastest into the final, or that Adrian went from 16th place in the heats and almost being eliminated to the man to beat in one sharp swim.
McEvoy has retained an unshakeable belief that he can replicate the 47.04s personal best time he set at trials and if he does that today no-one will get near him.
“It’s fairly close between the top eight and that makes for an exciting final tomorrow night,” McEvoy said.
“I’m not really getting too caught up comparing stuff but that felt nice, it felt strong and I think tomorrow having the morning off and being a bit fresher for the final will put me in a good position.”
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Originally published as Kyle Chalmers is on the verge of Olympic swimming history at Rio
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