Kyle Chalmers winning a 100m freestyle title at the Australian swimming trials is nothing new.
He’s been Australia’s dominant sprinter in the race for almost a decade since winning Olympic gold as a teenager at Rio 2016.
But there was one noticeable thing about Chalmers’ win on Thursday night in Adelaide ahead of next month’s world championships that shows he could be on the cusp of something special.
“It’s the fastest time in Australia I’ve ever done,” Chalmers said afterwards on Nine. “So super happy with that.”
For a 26-year-old who has raced on Australian soil for a decade, that is no small feat.
Chalmers’ time of 47.29 was nothing extraordinary in isolation — his personal best remains 47.08 — but seldom does he produce a swim like that “in-season” at trials before a major meet.
Kyle Chalmers celebrates after winning the men’s 100m freestyle final at the Australian swimming trials in Adelaide. Credit: Getty Images
The signs that something special was brewing came on Wednesday night when Chalmers lowered his personal best in the 50m freestyle from 21.78 to 21.68.
Chalmers has swum 47.08 in his favoured event twice – once at the 2019 world championships and again in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics.
At trials in 2019, Chalmers clocked 47.35 seconds. At the 2021 trials, the time to get him on the team was 47.59 seconds.
He was slower at trials in 2023, but less than two months later went on to win a maiden individual long-course 100m freestyle gold medal in Fukuoka.
He was slower at trials in 2024 but picked up a silver medal at the Paris Olympics. Only an astounding world record from Pan Zhanle stood in the way of more Chalmers Olympic glory.
Chalmers will head into the upcoming world championships, starting July 27, as a medal contender in the two-lap dash. Pan hasn’t come close to replicating his stunning world record of 47.4 seconds, so is an unknown quantity.
American Jack Alexy, who finished second to Chalmers in Fukuoka two years ago, clocked a sharp heat time of 46.99 at the USA trials recently.
When Chalmers came from nowhere to swim a 47.27 in Norway in April, it was a sign he was really tracking in the right direction.
Chalmers is a racer. He rarely gets solid competition in Australia and isn’t pushed to his limit.
Kyle Chalmers won gold in the men’s 100 metres freestyle at the world championships in 2023. Credit: Getty
It’s why he could be flying under the radar for another world title.
After getting engaged last year and with a baby on the way, Chalmers appears happier than ever as he continues his quest to make it to the LA 2028 Olympics.
Chalmers knocked off Flynn Southam by 0.4 seconds on Thursday night.
“It’s just trusting what I’ve been doing in training and listening to what my coaches are telling me to do,” Chalmers said on Nine. “Everything we’ve been doing is to swim a personal best time. And that was very close tonight.”
Meanwhile, the other impressive swim of the night came from Lani Pallister, who took down Ariarne Titmus’ Australian record in the 800m freestyle.
Pallister lowered Titmus’ best time of 8:12.29 from the Paris Olympics by clocking 8:10.84 and shaving more than four seconds off her personal best.
Pallister is now the third-fastest swimmer in history, behind Katie Ledecky (8:04.12) and Summer McIntosh (8:05.07), who will both be in Singapore.
It comes just three days after Pallister went under four minutes for the first time in the 400m freestyle.
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