NBA star Kevin Durant sends special video message to Kyle Chalmers before 100m freestyle final
KYLE Chalmers watches a video of NBA star Kevin Durant before every race. But before his 100m freestyle final, he received a personal message from his sporting hero.
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KYLE Chalmers watches a video of his sporting hero, NBA star Kevin Durant, before every race.
But on Wednesday, before his Olympic 100m freestyle final, his pre-race ritual had an added touch when Australian swim team manager Gary Vanderburgt contacted Durant to make the video personalised.
“I watched you (in the semi final),” Durant said in the video.
“You’ve got skills, man.
“Always USA, but I hope you do well.”
The previous night Chalmers had seen Durant at the Olympic pool as the Dream Team came to watch Michael Phelps create history. Spotting his favourite basketballer, Chalmers almost vomited.
“I watch Kevin Durant’s MVP speech before every single race and just before I go out I watch a video Kevin Durant called King Kong, it’s like a highlight video of him playing basketball and it has a pretty cool song to the background of it,” Chalmers said.
“Last night I was walking over to the semi-final and Kevin Durant walked in front of me and to be honest with you I almost vomited. I was that (shocked) my jaw dropped.
“I was that excited and nervous about it. It was just amazing for me.”
So when the Australian team had a private message of good luck from Durant to give to Chalmers, they knew they’d better give it to him many hours before his race or he’d fall apart.
“Gary our team manager actually grabbed him last night and got a video of him saying he watched me swim and good luck for me tonight which was really exciting,” Chalmers said.
“They actually had to show it to me this morning because they knew I wouldn’t be able to focus tonight for my race.
“That just shows how big of a sports fan I am, especially basketball with him.
“I went to game seven of the NBA finals this year and watched him play live and that was an incredible experience for me.
“It was amazing having someone like that congratulate me and wish me luck.”
Originally published as NBA star Kevin Durant sends special video message to Kyle Chalmers before 100m freestyle final
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