‘I am not retiring’: Chalmers hits back after Paris 2024 comments

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‘I am not retiring’: Chalmers hits back after Paris 2024 comments

By Tom Decent
Updated

Kyle Chalmers says Paris 2024 will likely be his last Olympic Games, but he still plans to swim competitively beyond next year.

A fortnight after winning his first individual world championships gold medal in his favoured 100m freestyle event, Chalmers hinted on SEN radio that he couldn’t see himself swimming at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Kyle Chalmers dives in during his 100m freestyle final.

Kyle Chalmers dives in during his 100m freestyle final.Credit: Getty

“It probably will be the last Olympics, definitely, for me,” Chalmers said on Wednesday.

Chalmers’ comments prompted a flurry of headlines suggesting he was going to retire immediately after the Olympics conclude in August next year. However, the 25-year-old clarified his future on Instagram shortly after his radio appearance.

“I am NOT RETIRING!! The quote was ‘It will be my last Olympics’,” Chalmers posted to his 137,000 Instagram followers.

“There are many competitions after the Olympics that still give me the opportunity to represent my country at the highest level. We have a world championships short course in 2024, world championship long course in 2025, Commonwealth Games in 2026 and plenty of World Cups in there also. I’ll be busy, I have plenty of titles that need defending.

“But yes, Paris will be my third and most likely last Olympic Games. 2028 is a very long way away, but who knows, if the body and the mind hold up maybe I’ll even be in Brisbane in 2032.

“For now, it’s time to lock in and give my absolute all to having success in Paris. Hungrier then [sic] ever.”

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Chalmers, who won a gold medal in the 100m freestyle as an 18-year-old at the 2016 Rio Olympics, pulled off one the greatest swims of his career last month in Fukuoka when he stormed to victory in the two-lap dash.

After many attempts, it was Chalmers’ first individual gold medal at a world championship. He also picked up gold medals in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay and the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay.

“Even this year being in the [world championships] marshalling room, I was the oldest in the race,” Chalmers said on SEN. “The guys are 2003, 2004 born now.

“[World 100m freestyle record holder] David Popovici, the Romanian boy, has just turned 18; the Aussie boy Flynn Southam coming through, he’s just turned 18.

“[There are] a lot of young guys rolling through, and I’m definitely the old man in the marshalling room now.

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“[After the Olympics] I will be old and probably ready to start the next chapter of my life. We’ll see what happens.”

Chalmers said there was “no better feeling” than what he accomplished in Fukuoka.

“I obviously worked so hard for it, day in, day out for such a long period of time,” he said.

“I have been to four world championships now and have never been able to have been on top of the podium.

“To do that this time around was a feeling, that high, that you kind of chase every single day and what motivates you in the pool every single day, so to have that feeling, it’s very satisfying.

“I have got to try and find the next thing to chase – luckily for me the Olympics is next year so that will give me a bit of motivation again.”

With AAP

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