Commonwealth Games: Swim star Kyle Chalmers credits lizard collection for keeping him grounded

HE’S an Olympic champion and an AFL tragic. But what is the bizarre obsession that keeps Kyle Chalmers ticking? The star swimmer opens up on how he stays grounded out of the water.

Kyle Chalmers beat a star-studed field in the 100m freestyle in the trials.

OLYMPIC champion. AFL tragic. Lizard king?

Kyle Chalmers is a closet reptile fan who keeps native lizards in his garage and has a cult Instagram following through his Blue Tongues of Adelaide page.

Lizards, Chalmers says, are his mindset.

It’s one of the more bizarre statements you’ll ever hear from an elite sportsman.

Kyle Chalmers beat a star-studed field in the 100m freestyle in the trials.

But it’s one that could help Chalmers become one of the stars of next month’s Commonwealth Games.

The Adelaide teen admits he struggled to deal with the spotlight after his 100m freestyle win at the Rio Games in 2016.

“I probably pushed everything aside and thought swimming was me after the Olympics,” Chalmers said.

“And now I’m trying to re-find all those loves that I had that helped me perform.”

It turns out reptiles are among the biggest of those loves.

“I’m obsessed with reptiles. Blue-tongued skinks are my (thing),” he said.

“I’ve got about 16 of them. I’ve got all the super-rare ones like albinos.

“I’m right into it. (I keep them in tanks) in my garage. I’ve got a licence and everything.

“My mindset is always lizards these days.”

Chalmers is a big deal in Australia’s lizard community.

Some of the lizards that are on Kyle Chalmers' Instagram page.

This fella is hardly tongue tied.

Although it’s unclear whether followers of the Instagram handle - adl_bluetongues - know they’re connecting with an Olympic champion when they view his posts covering everything from the latest additions to his collection, to the feeding habits of baby blue-tongue skinks.

“I’ve formed a lot of friends in the lizard community,” he said.

“It’s a weird thing to say. It’s a great community. I’ve got friends all around Australia that I’ll catch up with now and they know me as Adelaide Bluetongues (adl_bluetongues), that’s my Instagram page.

“I’m obsessed.”

Chalmers grew up in the country where there were plenty of lizards in the backyard. He had one as a pet before getting into serious collecting.

Serious collecting can mean serious money and logistics, too, including live freighting around the country.

“Some lizards sell for up to $10k — there’s a lot of money in lizards,” Chalmers said.

“An albino blue-tongue goes for about $1500 and they’ll have 20 babies at a time and they sell ridiculously quickly, it’s unbelievable.

“At the moment I do it more as a passion … it’s not a business.

Kyle Chalmers with his gold medal in Rio.

“It’s pretty full-on but it’s something that I love doing and it’s really helped me, I think.”

The obsession is proving healthy for Chalmers’ swimming, too.

The 19-year-old won the 100m and 200m freestyle at the national selection trials at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre last week and ahead of the Commonwealth Games is returning to the form that led him to gold in Rio.

It’s partly because he has balance back in his life.

“(Keeping lizards again) is probably the thing that’s made me that normal because I’m able to be Adelaide Bluetongues on Instagram and go to the pool and be the swimmer and then go home and it’s back to lizards,” he said.

“That’s really helped me.

“I got pretty caught up in it thinking that swimming was going to be the rest of my life.

“But I’ve tried to take it back to reality and it’s something that I’m really enjoying doing.”

Originally published as Commonwealth Games: Swim star Kyle Chalmers credits lizard collection for keeping him grounded