Article by Julian Linden, courtesy of the Herald Sun.
Sometimes, you don’t have to win the gold to be the best.
In collecting the silver medal in the 100m freestyle at the Paris Olympics, Kyle Chalmers proved beyond any doubt that he is the greatest sprinter of his generation and the finest Australia has ever produced.
The only guy who beat Chalmers was China’s Pan Zhanle, who demolished the world record, setting a time of 46.40 seconds.
The sceptics will ask questions about how he did it, given the furore over the recent drugs scandal involving the Chinese swim team, though there is no suggestion Pan is anything but clean.
King Kyle already has a gold medal from Rio in 2016 as well as silver from Tokyo three years ago. Now he has a second silver.
While he might have pocketed another gold with a slice of luck, a third medal in swimming’s blue-riband event is an astonishing feat that deserves to be celebrated regardless of the colours.
More than any other event in the pool, the men’s 100m freestyle is the race that gets
the most eyeballs because it’s a test of speed, strength and courage.
That’s why it attracts the beefcakes of the pool that strut around the deck with their sculptured, muscle-packed frames, though it’s their mind as much as their bodies that decide the biggest races.
Chalmers now ranks among the all-time greats.
First contested in 1896, only two men have ever won medals in the 100m freestyle at the Olympic Games.
The first was Duke Kahanamoku, the Hawaiian legend who popularised surfing. He
won gold in 1912 and 1920 then silver in 1924, at Paris.
The other was the great Russian Alexander Popov, who won gold in 1992 and 1996 then silver at Sydney in 2000.
Now you can add Chalmers to that list.
Against one of the hottest fields ever assembled, Chalmers came within a whisker of
something extraordinary.
Last off the blocks, last at the turn, he motored home to claim silver, more than a second behind Pan. Chalmers touched the wall in 47.48, 0.01 ahead of Romania’s David Popovici.
This was a mega race that will ignite a hot feud. Just 26, Chalmers is still a young man, but a veteran in swimming circles so no-one knows for certain how much longer he’ll continue. He said in the heat of battle last night he still had the hunger for racing.
But who knows?
It’s possible this could be his last Olympics. If it is, Australian swimming is indebted for his contribution.
A teenage prodigy who won the Olympic gold medal at Rio in 2016 while he was still a schoolboy, he’s gone on and ticked everything on his list, winning individual world titles in long-course and shortcourse and a Commonwealth Games gold medal, plus a stack of relay medals.
The relays have always shown Chalmers at his best.
When he was a kid growing up in South Australia he wanted to be a footballer and relays are the closest thing to a team event in swimming.
It’s not just the bucketload of medals that he’s won that makes the Big Tuna the fastest fish in the sea. It’s the way he puts everything on the line when she swims for his country and his teammates.
Whenever he swims for Australia in relays, he always produces superhuman times, even though he’s had plenty of battles to overcome.
Standing 1.94m tall and packed with muscles that are covered in tattoos, Chalmers is an imposing figure but he feels the pressure like everyone else.
But somehow he has managed to put them aside when it comes to race time.
