SYDNEY, April 7 (Reuters) – Kyle Chalmers mowed down his rivals to take the 100 metres freestyle crown at the Australian Open swimming championships on Monday before revealing his desire to finally land an Olympic sprint relay gold in 2028.
The 27-year-old South Australian has only one Olympic gold in his bumper collection of medals — the 100m title he won a decade ago as a teenager in Rio de Janeiro.The former world champion has two bronzes and a silver in the 4×100 relay from his three Olympics but would like nothing better than to stun hosts the United States in their own backyard in Los Angeles.
“I’d love a gold medal in a relay,” Chalmers told Code Sports after winning the blue riband sprint in 48.39 seconds.
“To go to a fourth Olympics and get a gold medal in that relay that would be, for me, the ultimate success at this point.
“And I say that truthfully and honestly, I love that relay and if we were able to win it, I think it would be amazing.”
Chalmers believes the inclusion of 50m world record holder Cam McEvoy on the Australia team would be a massive boost to their hopes of wresting away the title from the Americans, who have won it at the last three Games.
McEvoy has not swum relays for the last five years and Chalmers said he would be prepared to give up the anchor leg if it would tempt the 31-year-old back into the team event.
“If it was to work out, I feel like we would be a very good chance of beating America at their home Olympics, which on night number one … would set the team up for an amazing week in the pool,” Chalmers added.
Most of the swimmers at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre are more immediately concerned with showing their form ahead of this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Pan Pacific Championships which follow in California.
World champion Mollie O’Callaghan took out the women’s 100m title in 52.66 seconds on Monday, while Olympic champion and world record holder Kaylee McKeown clocked two minutes, 5.66 seconds to win the 200m backstroke.
Former world champion Sam Short took out the men’s 400m freestyle in 3:42.53, nearly four seconds ahead of Paris Olympics silver medallist Elijah Winnington (3:46.36).
The championships continue until Wednesday. The Australian trials for the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships take place from June 7 to 13 at Sydney’s Olympic Park.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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