Article by Todd Balym, courtesy of The Australian.
Tapped on the shoulder just a few hours before the final to step up for his country, Kai Taylor delivered the decisive leg before an absurd Kyle Chalmers anchor secured Australia a stunning silver medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
Taylor, the son of triple Olympian Hayley Lewis, appeared to have been overlooked
for the relay altogether but a late decision by selectors to add him to the final quartet at the expense of William Yang proved a masterstroke.
Yang was Australia’s second fastest man at trials, so it was a shock he was the fall guy for Taylor, but the decision was made after the heat swims as coaches knew they needed something special for the final.
It was Taylor’s performance that put Australia back in contention in the third leg after the front-loaded relays of their rivals had the Dolphins caught in the washing machine where race dreams can disappear in a whirlpool.
Taylor’s 47.73s split brought the Aussies back before Chalmers unleashed a thunderous final leg in 46.59s to drag Australia into the silver medal in 3:10.35 and just finish behind USA in 3:09.28.
Chalmers revealed afterwards it was the second fastest relay split of his illustrious career – a performance that bodes well for his individual 100m later this meet.
“You know, winning an Olympic medal, there’s no better feeling. So I’m super proud
of the boys and it’s amazing tonight,” Chalmers said.
“For me to have a great swim tonight gives me a huge amount of confidence.
“I know this morning I felt really great through the water and tonight I was able to deliver an even faster race, so I’m really looking forward to the individual race.
“But for now it’s celebrating with the boys and I love that. I love swimming for the team. That’s my pride and joy and that s why I swim.”
Taylor said the Aussie men knew the relay battle would be intense, but they always had belief they could stand on the podium.
“We knew that if we all believed and trusted in each other, we could get off and get a medal, whether that was gold, silver or bronze,” Taylor said.
“We obviously wanted the gold, but at the end of the day, we’re all so proud of each other and whatever the outcome was, we knew we would give it our all.
“But yeah, we’re very, very stoked to have that silver. I got the late call up this afternoon from the head coach that I was in. So obviously very stoked to be part of this relay team tonight.”
Jack Cartwright (48.03) and Flynn Southam (48.00) had kept Australia in touch with
their competitors early after a blistering start from China’s Pan Zhanle (46.92s) almost broke his own individual world record.
By the halfway mark, the Americans had already opened up a half-a-second lead and
never looked back.
But while most of the countries stacked their fastest swimmers at the front of the relay, Australia always had the ace up their sleeve in Chalmers to bring it home.
“We really wanted to have that Australian fighting spirit leading into this after last year,” Cartwright said.
“We wanted to show the world what we could do, and we did our best.”
Chalmers will go into the 100m freestyle heats at the Paris La Defence arena starting on Tuesday full of confidence with his sights set on a podium finish.
