Last year after having undergone successful surgery to address his heart condition known as Supraventricular Tachycardia, Olympic gold medalist Kyle Chalmers of Australia told media that he’d “commit himself till 2020, then he’d decide what he wants to do.” Speaking again with Australian media this week, the 20-year-old has now clarified his post-Tokyo plans.
Although the Port Lincoln native will indeed seek to defend his 100m freestyle Olympic title, Chalmers told Adelaide Now this week that he plans on quitting swimming after the 2020 Games. Instead, Chalmers wants to pursue his dream of playing in the Australian Rules Football league, just like his father.
“It’s something I would love to do and because it is my dream — I would give absolutely everything to see if that dream would take off,” Chalmers said.
“I know how hard it can be to be an athlete in regards to training and commitment. I think I’ve got that background knowledge in it and if there was a sniff I could play AFL football, I’d train all day every day to see if I could get drafted firstly.”
Chalmers actually made his under-the-radar XVIII Australian Football League (AFL) game debut for Immanuel College back in the Spring of 2015, but it did not go quite as planned. Within just the first five minutes of his very first game, Chalmers left the field with both a broken wrist and torn ankle ligaments.
The teen tried to conceal his ankle injury for a few weeks from his swim coaches before finally getting treated with cortisone injections to ease the swelling. He also sported a plastic cast for the wrist injury.
Looking ahead 3 years later, the freestyle sprint ace admits, “It would be hard for me to go from being at the top of the swimming world to potentially being a rookie on a footy list.
“There’d be a big shock but I’d do everything I could and give everything up to pursue that dream because it has been a dream of mine since I was small.”
Plans change and Chalmers will still be a young 22 years of age come Tokyo. Considering the 2016 50m freestyle champion Anthony Ervin was 35 years of age and the most decorated Olympian of all-time, now-retired Michael Phelps, still won medals at 31, Chalmers may yet revise his swimming goals in the future.
For this year, Chalmers had previously opted out of competing at next week’s Short Course World Championships in Hangzhou, China.
Does anyone know if he is a truly gifted Australian Rules footballer? I know he did well in junior ranks but it would have been easy for him to dominate because he’s always been a big kid for his age. When he tries to make it in the big league he’ll be up against players who are as big and strong as he is and he will be a novice against players who will have been honing their football skills for years. He deserves respect for having the guts to leave a domain where he is a big star to pursue his dream. It would be remarkable if he makes it at the top level. If he doesn’t, he’ll still… Read more »
‘Old Man’ Chalmers retiring after 2020? Say it ain’t so!
Good on him. He’s a dual-sport athlete who shelved his AFL dreams to pursue his swimming and now this Olympic Gold medalist has reached his swimming goals he’s going to take up his other passion, which, if he makes it, will make him more $$$$ than swimming.
Real shame, but no money in Swimming & it’s his passion. No guarantee, he’d make to the AFL. Shame too cause only 1/2 the country follows this sport.
Swimming is huge in australia in the olympic years, but no one outside the sport follows it otherwise. If you do well at the olympics you get a lot of press. He won an olympic gold medal, so pretty much everyone in australia knows who he is. While it’s no guarantee he’ll make it to the AFL, his dad played in it and he’s shown the ability to perform under pressure on the elite sporting stage, so he’s got a very good chance at making it if that’s where he chooses to go.
I have no doubt he may have the ability & the ability to absorb pressure. I was just saying it was a guarantee. I was saying him being an AFL player, he’d only be known by 1/2 the country.
Sorry not a GUARANTEE!!!!
Within the first five minutes of his first game, he left with a broken wrist and torn ankle tendons!!! Lol. Stay in the water my friend.
It would be a terrible waste of his talents to play Australian Football- he could even leave it til after Paris, he would only be 26. Lot of boys dream of playing football of some type (Usain Bolt spent 3 months doing here this year) but it rarely succeeds.
He’s a class act whatever he does.
most AFL guys are retired by their early 30’s
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the gross understatement of “still won medals at 31”… 5 golds and a silver. One of the most dominant Olympic performances of all time, especially if you don’t consider his own other performances.
This may come as a shock to you but this article is not about Michael Phelps .. I thjnk there’s 3,5096 other articles on this website that worships Phelps that you may want to look at instead
Maya DiRado is a better comparison than phelps in this case. She went into Rio knowing that it would be her last competition, but still came away with 3 best times and 2 gold medals, one of them individually. Chalmers is most likely retiring at a similar age to when DiRado retired. Chalmers is most likely retiring at 22 while DiRado retired at 23.
Everyone saying they don’t think that mentality is good for Tokyo. I may have to disagree. When I worry about a meet and try too hard to focus I do really poorly but when I just let it flow and not really care about the outcome I perform well. So it may serve him well
Mya Dirado anyone
That’s what I was thinking. Sometimes it’s easier to train all out if you know it’s your only shot.
That’s not a champion mentality he’s gonna get stomped by Dressel in Tokyo
Well he’s the the Olympic Champion, so he evidently does. I think it’s quite nice to see a youngster whose whole life doesnt revolve around swimming.
And who admires his dad…