Kyle Chalmers goes under the knife to fix heart condition

Kyle Chalmers will have heart surgery to address the condition that has forced him out of this year’s world titles.

Olympic 100m champion Kyle Chalmers will have heart surgery. Picture: Tara Croser

Teenage Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers will have heart surgery without a general anaesthetic next month to address the long-term condition that has forced him out of this year’s world championships in Budapest in August.

Chalmers, 18, announced yesterday that he was withdrawing from the Australian team “with great regret’’ to address the heart condition that has disrupted his training and racing since his triumph in Rio last year.

“I have been swimming with an ongoing heart condition known as Supraventricular Tachy­cardia (SVT) and have increas­ingly begun to suffer from an abnormally fast heart rhythm during training and competitions, which now requires surgery,’’ he said in a statement.

“The symptoms have reached a point where I must act to ensure I am in peak physical condition for next year’s Commonwealth Games trials and hopefully the Commonwealth Games.

“There is never a good time for this type of procedure but given I’ve suffered from these symptoms during two of the past three major meets, and following my doctors advice, I have made the tough ­decision to withdraw.’’

As a child, Chalmers was diagnosed with SVT, a heart arrhythmia which occasionally causes his heart to race at 200 beats per ­minute, leaving him dizzy and ­fatigued.

He had surgery in 2015 in a bid to correct the condition but it was unsuccessful because his doctors were unable to induce the arrhythmia in order to identify and burn off the rogue nerve endings that were affecting his heartbeat.

The condition rarely bothered him as he prepared for the Rio Olympics in 2016 but his episodes of arrhythmia have become more frequent since the Games.

He was forced to withdraw from a race for the first time at the national short-course championships in November, and had another episode before a race at the NSW titles in March.

Chalmers’ coach Peter Bishop said the tachycardia had become more unpredictable in recent months and they did not want to take the risk of going to Europe for six weeks and having to deal with an episode at the world titles.

“The doctors have said that once it stops he can race but we’ve decided we need to get it sorted out now,’’ Bishop said. “It used to happen only when he was swimming slowly but the last time it was while he was going hard in training.’’

Bishop said the swimmer was a bit anxious about the surgery because he would have to be awake for it to give the doctors the best chance of triggering the arrhythmia.

“I don’t think anyone looks forward to heart surgery but he’s generally a pretty calm and relaxed character and he wants to get back to competing’’ Bishop said.

“That’s what he loves and this will take away some of the stresses he’s felt in the last year.’’

Chalmers was due to compete in the 100m and 200m freestyle and 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays in Budapest.

His place is likely to be filled within the team. Fellow 18-year-old Jack Cartwright finished third in the 100m at the national trials (48.43sec) and is likely to step into that individual event, while Alex Graham is the likely replacement in the 200m.

Cartwright, from Biloela (near Gladstone) in country Queensland, is another highly-talented teenage sprinter who first emerged at last year’s Junior Pan Pacific championships in Hawaii, where he won the 50m-100m-200m treble against the best American and Japanese juniors.

There are already sufficient relay swimmers within the team to cover Chalmers’ absence, although the medal chances of the freestyle relays will suffer.

Bishop has also withdrawn from the team in order to oversee Chalmers’ return to the pool after the operation.

He is expected to be able to resume training two weeks after surgery, and Bishop said he may be able to return to competition by August, when the World Cup series begins in Europe.

Swimming Australia will announce a replacement coach for the Australian team in the coming days.

Richard Scarce, who coaches national 100m freestyle champion Cameron McEvoy, is the obvious choice after he was surprisingly omitted from the original coaching team. Scarce also coaches Graham and backstroker Madison Wilson.