Kyle Chalmers - Port Adelaide Ambassador

[RussellEbertHandball]

On TPFP thread there was a decent thread on Brett Chalmers son Kyle who back in 2012 was breaking Ian Thorpe's U/13 Australian records and the thread was started with those swims and subsequent efforts. I think he won 7 individual events back then at the nationals

His U/13 and then U/14 times meant that if he kept improving at a reasonable rate he would qualify in a couple of events or more either in individual or relay events for Rio in 2016 and maybe even 2015 World Champs in

But at the nationals and Comm Games trials in Brisbane he has would made the national team for the 50m butterfly if it was a Comm Game event. It is a World Champs event. A bit of luck with missing out on the fina by 0.01secl but then Eamon Sullivan pulling out and he wins a silver.

Interesting he doesn't play for Port Magpies as obviously he lives near marion goes to Immanuel College and lives in their zone. One on the stories on TPFP was that the family moved from Port Lincoln so he could concentrate on his Olympic dream.

If he is a seriously good athlete - deregister him from Footy now, tell him to concentrate on Rio and then sign him up as a 3 year unregistered rookie.

From Today's Tsier story on page 74 via www.pressdisplay.com

A tough call for son of Brett
9 Apr 2014 The Advertiser KYM MORGAN

SA TEEN swim sensation Kyle Chalmers says his stunning silver medal performance in the Commonwealth Games selection trials 50m butterfly in Brisbane last week has increased the chances he will choose swimming over football.

The 15-year-old son of former Crows and Power player Brett Chalmers would have been on a plane to the Glasgow Games in August had the race been a Games selection event.

He is now becoming an increasingly realistic chance of qualifying for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016, and continues to draw comparisons with Ian Thorpe at the same age.

Chalmers plays school football for Immanuel College and club matches with Glenelg.

The 195cm key position ruckman is a fanatical Port Adelaide fan, and also has a soft spot for Essendon.

He loves football, but says his results in the pool are starting to make his decision for him, meaning he may not follow his father into footy.

“When you have success in anything it makes you want to do it more,’’ Chalmers says.

“It is going to be a hard decision to make. I love both sports ... I guess time will tell.”

Chalmers went into the Brisbane meet ranked 27th in Australia for the 50m butterfly.

The Marion club swimmer scraped into the semi-finals as the 15th-fastest qualifier and produced a brilliant swim but missed qualification for the final by an agonising .01 sec.

Then Eamon Sullivan and another swimmer withdrew from the final earning Chalmers a call-up.

He then produced the swim of his life to claim the silver.

“I just went for it,” he said.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

This is a cut and paste from August 2012 on The Games board just after the swimming finished.

There's not big secret these things go in waves, there's two young aussie males under 15 who are cleaning up Australian Age records left right and centre.

.....And in the past 18 months a 13-14 year old sprinter has emerged smashing every record in sight. So there are some real prospects coming through. It is not quite as strong in the womens but there are still some potential stars.

So basically we just need to be patient. We didn't get the golds this time as we didn't have a superstar or two like Thorpe, Hackett , a youger Jones etc. But they are just around the corner, and we will be fine for Rio.

Is the kid you guys are talking about, Kyle Chalmers??

Chalmers is from Port Lincoln in country SA, but his swimming has seen so good the family has moved to Adelaide. His old man is Brett Chalmers who played for Port in the SANFL, after the civil war of SA footy in 1990 he didn't want to play for the crows, wanted to play for Collingwood, sent out a letter to all clubs saying don't draft me I wont come, Collingwood got done for draft tampering, he ended up at the crows but was traded to Port in the AFL in 1997 after their first season.

But young Kyle has the pull towards Aussie Rules and is considering both swimming and footy.

Superfish Kyle Chalmers smashes global swim times

Tod Balym - From: The Sunday Mail (Qld) April 15, 2012
KYLE Chalmers is Australia's newest superfish teenager who could quite possibly be the fastest 13-year-old the world has ever seen.

Chalmers dominated the Australian Age titles in Brisbane last week, smashing four national records on his way to four gold medals.

His 100m freestyle time - of 52.29 seconds - was more than one second faster than the previous record and a whopping 3.54 seconds quicker than Ian Thorpe's time at the same age in 1996.

Chalmers' 200m freestyle time of 1:57.48 is 1.32s quicker than Thorpe, who as a 14-year-old made his first Australian open team.

Chalmers has re-written the record books with such authority that officials have even scanned US age group records where he is ranked fourth on their all-time list in the 50m and 100m freestyle times of 13 and 14-year-olds

......

Swimming is littered with shattered dreams of youngsters labelled the "next Ian Thorpe" only to never make it on to the big stage. But his feet remain firmly grounded and his future, though they could still go in another direction and follow in the footsteps of his father, former Adelaide Crow AFL player Brett Chalmers.

"Yeah I play footy, I'm playing for the school this year. I was going to play in the Port Adelaide Magpies development squad but I don't have much time. Swimming is more of a priority at the moment," he said.

"I still dream of being an AFL player. Rio Olympics in 2016, that's the dream. I've got a long way to go but it'd be great to one day represent Australia at the Olympics."

Superfish Kyle Chalmers smashes global swim times

That story is from the Sunday Mail in Brisbane, a similar story was in the Adelaide Sunday Mail. On a Port Adelaide Supporters Footy Forum I put some comments from the Adelaide SM article - His 100m Freestyle time of 52.29 is 1.7 seconds off a B qualifier and his 100m Butterfly time of 55.93 is also 1.7 seconds off a B qualifier.

So if Kyle keeps on improving and can handle the work load he could be pushing for a 50m, 100m and 200m Freestyle slot plus the 100m butterfly + 3 relays.

Oh and he has big feet, size 15 at 13 years old.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/meet-...ith-size-15-feet/story-e6frea6u-1226213201124

He's one of them, the other prospect who I was talking about when I swam in the same heat as him, swims at Nunawading in Melbourne. This blokes more likely to be a big hit in the Backstroke and IM events though.

 

[chargers 09]

This is a cut and paste from August 2012 on The Games board just after the swimming finished.






Is the kid you guys are talking about, Kyle Chalmers??

Chalmers is from Port Lincoln in country SA, but his swimming has seen so good the family has moved to Adelaide. His old man is Brett Chalmers who played for Port in the SANFL, after the civil war of SA footy in 1990 he didn't want to play for the crows, wanted to play for Collingwood, sent out a letter to all clubs saying don't draft me I wont come, Collingwood got done for draft tampering, he ended up at the crows but was traded to Port in the AFL in 1997 after their first season.

But young Kyle has the pull towards Aussie Rules and is considering both swimming and footy.

Superfish Kyle Chalmers smashes global swim times


Superfish Kyle Chalmers smashes global swim times

That story is from the Sunday Mail in Brisbane, a similar story was in the Adelaide Sunday Mail. On a Port Adelaide Supporters Footy Forum I put some comments from the Adelaide SM article - His 100m Freestyle time of 52.29 is 1.7 seconds off a B qualifier and his 100m Butterfly time of 55.93 is also 1.7 seconds off a B qualifier.

So if Kyle keeps on improving and can handle the work load he could be pushing for a 50m, 100m and 200m Freestyle slot plus the 100m butterfly + 3 relays.

Oh and he has big feet, size 15 at 13 years old.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/meet-...ith-size-15-feet/story-e6frea6u-1226213201124

Yeh he's one of the fellas I was talking about, good to see he's made the Comm Games team. Will be a great experience for him.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Plenty of time for him to chase his swimming dream then have a crack at footy in his 20s. At 15 and 195cm he is likely going to be a later developer footy wise going by the old ruckman adage so yes hide him away by all means.

Meanwhile the thread title invites this ...

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

another story in the press in last saturday's age/smh about Kyle


http://www.smh.com.au/sport/swimming/tackling-the-next-ian-thorpe-burden-20140509-3815k.html

A couple of days before Kyle Chalmers was due to flew to Sydney for the national age swimming championships this year, the 15-year-old decided to go to a high school football training and "have a kick with the lads". Chalmers, the son of former Crows and Power ruckman, Brett Chalmers, returned from the session, with a cracked index finger on his right hand when the ball hit it awkwardly.

After he finished competing at the meet, which he took part in after defying initial medical opinion that he should rest for up to eight weeks – he became the latest promising junior swimming star to be lumped with the label of the "next Ian Thorpe".

It was a crown that was bestowed on Te Haumi Maxwell in 2008 and another junior champion Daniel Smith in the mid-2000s. There have no doubt been others, who when still in their early teens, have faced what can be an overwhelming comparison to Australia's greatest Olympian.

"It is the worse thing you can give a kid," says experienced coach Grant Stoelwinder."It's just such a hoodoo because Ian Thorpe was special."

......

Now Chalmers has been busy setting times quicker than what Thorpe could manage at the same age. In 2013, he twice bettered Thorpe's best times in the 14 years 100 freestyle – his best time of 50.86 almost two seconds better than Thorpe's – and at this year's national titles won the 15-year-old 100 freestyle in an impressive 49.68. He had earlier beaten Thorpe's national record of 50.21 – which had been standing since 1998 – in the morning heat.

The hype around Chalmers has grown this year. He took the silver medal in the 50 butterfly at the national titles and was named in the team that will compete at the Youth Olympics in Beijing. However Chalmers says he has kept perspective on his performances — noting that the 100 freestyle was not one of Thorpe's signature races, with the swimming great a 400 freestyle world champion when he was 15. "I don't get too carried away with anything, to be honest," Chalmers says. "I just keep my head down and train hard and don't really worry about the records too much. I do have them written in – my goals of times I'd like to achieve over the season – but I don't really think about it. I just go in and just try and race the best race I can race.

"It's a great honour to be able to break (the records of) someone who's as high profiled as Ian Thorpe so I reckon it's pretty awesome, (but) not many people would know, as I haven't really told anyone."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/swimmin...orpe-burden-20140509-3815k.html#ixzz31Um0QXzu

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Chalmers has another decent article about in the sports section of today's Weekend Oz.

The article says Swimming has lured him away from footy but I wouldnt be surprised if down the track he might come and have a crack. A potential Category B rookie other sports spot might be open for our future club ambassador one day. diegodcg you will have to watch out for him in Rio if you go to the swimming. His dad Brett played for Port in both the SANFL before our 1990 bid and then after we got in, he played a bit for the crows then got a transfer after the 1997 debut season.


Under the photo in the Oz it says he is tracking faster than Ian Thorpe, James Magnussen and Cameron McEvoy at the same as them.

Prince Chalmers could become sprint king
When 17-year-old Kyle Chalmers was filling out his Australian team profile just before last month’s world championships, he left the nickname line blank.
Then team coach Richard Scarce jumped in and wrote “Prince’’ in the vacant space.

“Prince’’ Chalmers. Beyond the obvious pun, there is an underlying truth. After making a strong senior international debut at the world titles in Kazan last month, he backed up to win three gold medals at the world junior championships in Singapore, including victory in both the 50m and 100m freestyle, which marks him as the boy who could become the future sprint king.Scarce, who coaches world championships silver medallist Cameron McEvoy and looked after Chalmers on the Australian team, was already confident that the teenager was “the heir to the throne’’.

“He hadn’t even raced at that point but I liked his character. He comes from a small place and he’s not afraid. He may be green but he’s tough — I guess from playing footy — and he loves being part of a team. He’s also a gracious and respectful young man,’’ Scarce said.

Chalmers made an exceptional debut as a relay swimmer in Kazan, upstaging athletes a decade his senior with his eye-catching split of 47.92sec in the 4x100m freestyle heats.It was the outstanding performance in a relay team that fell short of the final, hampered by the absence of injured world champion James Magnussen and McEvoy, who was rested for the medal attempt that never came.

Chalmers was recognised for his efforts and awarded a second swim in the 4x100m medley heats where he swam even faster (47.86sec) to guide that team to the final. They won the silver medal............
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...544276255?sv=ebb0c126b1d0bb429afac56b3f87be8a

 

[werner]

Not too many role models for Kyle to look up too ... swallowed too much chlorine some of them!

Team sports > Individual sports

 

[Smithy7]

Congratulations Kyle ..

Gold Medal

 

[badbeats]

 

[MrPortAdelaide]

now that he's got the Olympic Gold Medal out of his system he can be recruited to the Power, make it happen!

 

[jonasshirtfront]

How the * did he do that? He was almost last, they cut to that stupid underwater shot, then went back to the normal camera angle and he was storming into first. What an effort.

 

[Willsy10]

Amazing effort.

 

[philthy05]

The fact he started really slow then made everyone look like they were going backwards in the last makes me think he really could have blown them out of the water with a bit more experience.

Probably a long career ahead for this guy. Good on him.

Also joins the 'can't believe he isn't mid 30's' club with Matty broadbent.

 

[Papa G]

Surely will be reported as "the son of once Collingwood listed Brett Chalmers"

Well done to the lad. in celebration Lawrie Lawrence he ain't.

 

[badbeats]

His 2nd 50 has always been his strongest suit. Most of his races he comes from behind. More experience and training and he'll be a massive force in the year to come.

 

[philreich]

Sensational stuff - well done Kyle!

 

[ploppy]

I think we should rookie him.

 

[Smithy7]

Surely will be reported as "the son of once Collingwood listed Brett Chalmers"

Well done to the lad. in celebration Lawrie Lawrence he ain't.

Kyle said he is a Port Supporter....

 

[Eddie Dingle]

I think we should rookie him.

The way the great land of Oz works he'll never have to work again.

Endorsements kaching!!!!!

 

[manureid]

Mint. Great effort. Some bloke, clearly in the know, on radio this morning said don't be surprised if he is 7th at the turn and comes home like a bomb.

 

[Stevepower]

Surely will be reported as "the son of once Collingwood listed Brett Chalmers"

Well done to the lad. in celebration Lawrie Lawrence he ain't.

 

[Black 18]

Mad swim

Unreal effort

 

[badbeats]

He's a PAFC Ambassador.

 

[Doctor Feel]

They interviewed his coach this morning on Triple M. The coach quoted the numbers the aussie swimmers were putting up in the trials and Kyle was down the list. The coach said he would have to "absolutely swim out of his skin" to get near the gold, but said that the swimmer with the best "race plan" will win. Looks like he had a plan and executed it to perfection.

 

[tribey]

"I thought Brant Chambers played for Sturts"