Kyle Chalmers

Kyle Chalmers is an Australian competitive swimmer born on 25 June 1998. He is a world record holder in the short course 100-metre freestyle, the short course 4×100-metre medley relay, and the long course 4×100-metre mixed freestyle relay. He also holds Oceanian and Australian records in the short course 50-metre butterfly and 50-metre freestyle. Chalmers is widely recognized for his clutch performing back-end splits.

Chalmers was born in Port Lincoln, South Australia, and is the son of former Australian rules football player Brett Chalmers. As a child, he attended Saint Josephs School Port Lincoln on the Tenison team before moving to Adelaide to pursue enhanced schooling and athletic opportunities at Immanuel College. Health-wise, Chalmers was diagnosed with Supraventricular tachycardia.

In May 2014, Chalmers won Oceania titles in the 50-metre butterfly and 100-metre freestyle, followed by three bronze medals at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing later that year. He made his senior Australian team debut at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, swimming in relay heats. Later that month, he earned three gold medals, three silver medals, and one bronze medal at the 2015 World Junior Championships in Singapore.

Chalmers achieved a major international breakthrough at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. After breaking world junior records in the heats and semifinals, he won the gold medal in the 100-metre freestyle in a world junior record time of 47.58 seconds, becoming the first Australian to win the event since 1968. He also secured bronze medals in the 4×100-metre freestyle and 4×100-metre medley relays, and went on to set additional short course world junior records during the 2016 World Cup series.

Throughout his career, Chalmers navigated several health procedures, undergoing heart surgeries in May 2017 and August 2019, as well as shoulder surgery in November 2020. Despite these obstacles, he claimed gold in the 200-metre freestyle and three relays at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, along with a 100-metre freestyle gold at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships. At the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, he claimed silver in the 100-metre freestyle and gold in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Chalmers won the silver medal in the 100-metre freestyle with a time of 47.08 seconds, alongside bronze medals in the 4×100-metre and 4×200-metre freestyle relays. Later that year, he set a short course 100-metre freestyle world record of 44.84 seconds at the FINA World Cup in Kazan. In 2022, he took 100-metre freestyle gold medals at both the Commonwealth Games and World Short Course Championships, while contributing to a world record in the mixed 4×100-metre freestyle relay at the World Championships.

Chalmers maintained his high-level performances through the 2024 Paris Olympics. He captured the silver medal in the 100-metre freestyle with a time of 47.48 seconds and helped Australia earn silver in the Men's 4×100-metre freestyle relay final by delivering an anchor leg split of 46.59 seconds, the fastest split in the race.