The 2017 Australian Short Course Championships kick-off in Adelaide this weekend, with one of the nation’s biggest stars set to take the stage. 2016 Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers will be racing in his home state of South Australia and although the championships are not a selection meet, the competition will enable the 19-year-old to get his Tokyo 2020 journey underway.
The 100m freestyle virtuoso pulled out of this year’s World Championships in order to address his Supraventricular Tachycardia heart issue. Chalmers underwent a successful procedure in early June and quietly returned to competition via an exhibition 100m butterfly within a local SA Division I meet on July 1st.
Despite not being able to compete in Budapest, Chalmers ventured to Hungary to assess the competition and cheer on his fellow Australians. Not being the water only fueled the athlete to want to get back to competing on an elite international level even more.
“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 Caeleb 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.”
Helping along his path to potentially defending his gold in Tokyo is Queensland-based sports psychologist Elise Bateman.
“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,” Chalmers said.
“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.” (The Advertiser)
Chalmers raced at the World Cup in Eindhoven, as well as the 2017 Energy for Swim! charity meet in Rome last August, both of which he called a ‘bit of a shock to the system’.
He says, “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.” Chalmers clocked 49.08 in the Rome race.
In addition to meeting with a sports psychologist, Chalmers told The Advertiser he is more dedicated 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.”
This weekend the Port Lincoln native is set to swim his signature 100m freestyle, along with the 200m freestyle, 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 100m butterfly.
The real difference between Dressel and Chalmers (aside from Dressel’s insane start) is that he is so much faster than Chalmers in the 50. He is that rare beast who not only has the opening speed but has also done the work to be the fastest closer as well. Dressel is a near-perfect sprinter. Kyle keeps talking about how he wants to swim the 200 because Dressel does and he wants to compete with him, but he’s got it all wrong. He needs to swim the 50 to improve his speed ceiling in order to compete with Dressel in the 100. He can already close races.
Anyone see Kyle being interviewed after the 100m in Rio, it was like he had won the School Swimming Carnival! His head is definitely in the right place, You do not win Olympic Gold medals unless you are mentally strong!
Here is a video from the stands of the 100 meter final that Caeleb won in Budapest. You can see that his dive was a deciding factor in the race. From up high and looking down, you see what a difference his start made.
So when they race, Kyle will be chasing Caeleb the whole race, trying to run him down. Unless he can match Caeleb tremendous start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q58X2FH_Vw
Mate….
On any given day anyone is beatable.
Yeah, if Kyle and his coaches study this video, he might beat Caeleb.
Confident yank.
Not only is it his start but also his last 15m
Agreed. He didn’t breathe and he accelerated to the wall. He hit the touch right on as well.
You can’t teach a 41 inch vertical that helps him off of his start. He’s 6 1 and dunks a basketball with ease.
He had the 2nd fastest back half by .01 so I wouldn’t say his start was “the deciding factor”
He came back faster than everyone else who was in the mix.
Does Chalmers train with Jack Cartwright?
Like Chalmers in 2016, Jack Cartwright at Worlds had the fastest back half of the field in all three rounds. (Final was 0.01 faster than Dressel, despite finishing 7th.)
If Chalmers and Cartwright have the same coach, that is where the Campbell sisters need to go.
No.
King Kyle trains in Adelaide South Australia.
Jack trains in Brisbane Queensland.
i was desperately waiting to hear Chalmers about the Dressel’s summer show and how it felt for him . Great !!!!
He actually responded immediately after worlds, saying he needs to rethink how and what he swims to compete with Dressel
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/07/30/dressel-forces-chalmers-swimming-re-think
What about “a spring to your start” ?Good luck !
Prediction – both of these guys break the world record at 2019 worlds
Interesting conversation here. I would just say – I don’t think that working with a sports psychologist is a sign of weakness, and I admire his being frank and open about it. Whatever problems there are in Aussie swimming, this is one guy who doesn’t have them. He’s the Olympic champ! And it’s not like his performance slipped last year; he was just out recovering from surgery. Tokyo is a long way off, but Chalmers vs. Dressel should be a highlight. Yes, after a year off, KC has something to prove but if he’s at his previous level, Dressel isn’t too far ahead. Just like Chalmers wasn’t that far ahead of Dressel in Rio… a few tenths makes all the… Read more »