Chalmers revels in bid for Olympic 100m freestyle glory
Kyle Chalmers is revelling on the grandest swim stage, but expects others to crack.
Chalmers has eased into the Olympic semi-finals of the men’s 100m freestyle with a restrained effort in a Tuesday morning heat.
The Australian, who won gold in the event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and silver at the Tokyo Games three years ago, clocked 48.07 seconds.
His time was sixth-fastest through the heats, but countryman William Yang (48.46) didn’t advance.
Chalmers, despite being aged 26 – an elder statesman in swimming terms – says his belief has never wavered that he can add more gold to his Olympic medal collection.
“Every race I enter, I back myself in,” he said.
“I have got to have the confidence and belief in myself that I can win to be in the race, so I like to think I’m every chance.”
At the midpoint of the nine-day competition at the pool, no world record has been broken, a fact that doesn’t overly surprise Chalmers.
“There’s a lot of pressure and expectation that people put on themselves, it’s the Olympic Games,” he said.
“A lot of people haven’t swam at the Olympics before so I think this nervous energy, having 17,000 people in the crowd, is crazy.
“I personally love it. But I think people do definitely crack under that pressure.”
Australian duo Mollie O’Callaghan, the morning after her 200m freestyle triumph, and Shayna Jack both advanced to the women’s 100m semi-finals.
O’Callaghan (53.27) and Jack (53.40) were ranked fifth and sixth respectively in Tuesday’s heats.
Teammate Zac Stubblety-Cook made a strong start to his defence of the men’s 200m breaststroke title.
Stubblety-Cook was second-quickest into the semis, finishing his heat in two minutes 09.91 seconds, while teammate Joshua Yong (2:10.68, 14th) also advanced.
The Australian men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team of Kai Taylor, Zac Incerti, Flynn Southam and Thomas Neill secured a spot in Tuesday night’s medal race – they were ranked fourth through the heats in 7:05.63.
But Dolphins teammate Lani Pallister, who has tested positive to COVID, withdrew from Tuesday’s heats of the women’s 1500m freestyle.
Compatriot Moesha Johnson (16:04.02) progressed to the medal race with the fifth-quickest time in the heats.
Australia’s Matt Temple failed to progress from the men’s 200m butterfly heats, ranked 23rd in 1:57.39.
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