Elsewhere, Mireia Belmonte became the first Spanish women to win an Olympic swimming gold after taking the 200-meter butterfly title.
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Chalmers comes from good sporting stock, with dad Brett an AFL ruckman who played 75 games for the Crows and Power.
It’s Day 5 of the Rio Olympic Games, and Australia’s medal tally was seemingly kind of stalling.
Rio de Janeiro: Australian head swim coach Jacco Verhaeren wasn’t always sure if gold medal victor Kyle Chalmers would be a sensation in the pool, but he knew AFL wasn’t capable of catapulting him to stardom. He did concede afterwards that he “did OK” at his school swimming carnival earlier in the year, although he now focuses full-time on the pool. “Any race in the Olympics any chance you get to have your own lane in an Olympic race is something special”.
But her sister Cate, the current world record holder, cruised home for a win in the second semi and broke the Olympic record in the process.
Australia’s teenage Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers said he was bowled over by a video from National Basketball Association player Kevin Durant and a letter of support from Ian Thorpe before his sensational victory in the 100 metres freestyle on Wednesday.
Teenager Kyle Chalmers has surprised everyone to break Australia’s drought in the men’s 100 metres freestyle final with a stunning come-from-behind victory.
Kyle joins fellow Rio 2016 gold-winning Olympians Mack Horton (men’s 400m freestyle), the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay gold medal winners (Emma McKeon, Brittany Elmslie, Bronte Campbell, Cate Campbell), Catherine Skinner (women’s trap shooting) and the Australian women’s rugby sevens team.
Although he went to the 2016 Australian Olympic trials in Adelaide as a rising star, he still had not made his name.
Australia has a new Olympic hero – and his name is Kyle Chalmers.
Chalmers arrived in Rio de Janeiro still not spoken about in major circles, and it wasn’t until his split time in the 4x100m freestyle heats that people began to take notice. “It’s the best thing I can do for my country.”Until now, Balandin’s biggest achievement was winning three breaststroke gold medals at the 2014 Asian Games”.
In Rio, Chalmers has been working under Richard Scarce – fellow freestyler Cameron McEvoy’s coach.
“It was probably the best moment I have ever had in my life to be honest”, he said.
A faster start in the final will be the key for the strong-finishing Australian.
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With his now size 15 feet powering him along, he had what it took. Pieter Timmers of Belgium claimed the silver in 47.80, while Adrian made it onto the medal podium – with a bronze this time – in 47.85.”I feel great about getting another medal”, said Adrian, who barely advanced out of the preliminaries but almost pulled off the first back-to-back titles in the 100 since Pieter van den Hoogenband in 2000 and 2004.
