Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Australian swimmer Kyle Chalmers chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about his impressive year (2021) in swimming, and he opened up about his recent COVID diagnosis and his latest endeavors. He noted his appreciation for his family, friends, and his dedicated fans.
Walt Disney once said: “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Olympian Kyle Chalmers, 23, is living proof of this wise quotation by the cartoon legend.
Chalmers missed out on the 2021 Short Course World Championships since he underwent shoulder surgery, however, he is on the mend. “I am on the mend. I had the surgery last Thursday so it has been coming along pretty well, but unfortunately, I have COVID now, and it has been annoying. I need to recover from both for now,” he said.
He opened up about his partnership with YoPRO. “That has been pretty good,” he said. “It’s a recipe to success having the YoPROs in the fridge to come home and have a couple each day for breakfast and for snacks.”
Chalmers shattered the world record in the men’s 100 meter freestyle race at the FINA World Cup in Kazan with an amazing time of 44.84 seconds. “That was good. It was something I probably didn’t expect and I never even dreamed of, to be honest. It was an extremely fast race, and it was a very special feeling to break the world record,” he said.
“It is one of my greatest achievements to date and I am very, very happy with that,” he added. “This makes me hungry to break the world record long-course now.”
ISL Season 3
On being a part of ISL Season 3, and serving as a co-captain for London Roar, he said, “It was good, we obviously came a bit short from winning it, which was a bit unfortunate. I was really hoping that we would win it this year but unfortunately, we missed out.”
“It was awesome to be a part of the London Roar team, I loved being back there this year since I missed out in 2020, so I really appreciated being a part of the team this time around,” he added.
His greatest takeaway from ISL was that he was able to race fast. “In one of the competitions, I had seven races, and I was able to do pretty well across all of the races,” he said. “That’s my biggest takeaway, the fact that I can do more than one race in one session. That excited me moving forward.”
Reptiles
Chalmers is happy to be back home with his reptiles. “I missed them quite a lot while I have been away. My mom looked after them really well while I was away, she is the best,” he said.
“I flew back into Adelaide on Monday and I tested positive for COVID on Monday afternoon so I am locked up in my house at the moment but at least I get to spend some time in my reptile room doing what I love,” he added.
Thankful for family and friends
These holidays, he expressed that he is thankful for “being able to spend it with his family.” “We are going to be locked up for the next 14 days here in Australia because the rules are pretty strict so we will spend a lot of quality time together over the next two weeks. I have been away for the past six months and it is nice to be back home with my family. That is what I am most grateful for,” he said.
“Family and friends are really important,” he said about the greatest lesson that the year has taught him. “I’ve struggled at times because I haven’t had my family and friends around me, which has been quite tough. I’ve been in different time zones so it has been hard to keep in touch with them since they would be asleep while I’m awake and vice versa. This year cemented to me how important family and friends are.”
VACSWIM
In Australia, Chalmers serves as an ambassador for VACSWIM, and his goal is to raise awareness about water safety and drowning prevention. “That will be starting up in January of 2022 so I will make sure to get involved with that as soon as I can get down to the beaches and pools,” he said.
“Swimming is such an important skill for kids to learn and VACSWIM is great. It is really good to see kids getting involved and learning water safety,” he added.
On his New Year’s resolutions for 2022, he said, “I am actually going to get good at golf. I’m going to start playing it. I have a mate, Zac Incerti, who is moving in with me and he plays golf, and I want to get good at it in the New Year.”
If he were to write, produce, and direct his own short film, he revealed that it would be a comedy. “I would like to do a documentary of my past five years and getting back to the Olympics,” he said. “That would be a pretty cool documentary to do. There have been a lot of highs and a lot of lows so that would be interesting.”
When asked what superpower he would have, if, given the opportunity, Chalmers acknowledged that it would be “to be injury-free.” “I would have a rapid healing power where I would never get injured or sick,” he said. “I would do so well in swimming if I were able to stay injury-free all the time.”
On the title of the current chapter of his life, Chalmers remarked, “Entering the Prime Years of my Swimming Career.”
Success
Regarding his definition of the word success, Chalmers responded, “Bouncing back from winning silver in Tokyo to taking the gold medal in Paris. That would be the defining pinnacle of my swimming career. That’s what I am chasing next.”
For his fans, Chalmers expressed his gratitude. “Thank you so much for standing by me and following along in the journey. I definitely love my fan interaction and I love the engagement I get from them. They motivate me and inspire me. I am very grateful to be back in Australia where I have quite a big fanbase,” he said.
Rapid Fire Questions
Chalmers also took some time to answer a few “Rapid Fire” questions.
Waffles or pancakes? Pancakes
Flying or driving? Flying
City living or country living? Country living
Summer or winter? Winter
Library or museum? Museum
Bath or shower? Shower
Pepsi or Coke? I don’t drink either
Texting or calling? Calling
Half-full or half-empty? Half-full
Curly fries or normal fries? Normal fries
Skydiving or scuba diving? Scuba diving
Indoor pool or outdoor pool? Outdoor pool
Tea or coffee? Coffee
Rain or snow? Snow because we never get it in Australia, so I’ve only seen it once this year
Singing or dancing? Neither, I hate both of those
Burgers or tacos? Tacos
Long course or short course? Long course
Money or fame? Fame
For more information on Olympic gold medalist swimmer Kyle Chalmers, follow him on Instagram.
Read More: Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos also chatted with Kyle Chalmers back in August of 2021.
