Latest news with #KyleChalmers
News.com.au
10 hours ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Gastro outbreak hands Aussies two gold medals at World Championships
America's pain is Australia's gain. At least it has been so far at the World Aquatics Championships where the team expected to dominate the event, Team USA, got off to a horrifying start due to a gastro outbreak. The Australian women's 4x100m freestyle women's team kicked things off in Singapore taking gold as the hotly placed American's had to settle for silver. The men backed them up just moments later with a remarkable come from behind victory thanks to big name Kyle Chalmers who led the way to a resounding 3:08:07 championship record leaving the US favourites reeling in third place. It ended a remarkable first day of eight for the Aussies, capped also by Sam Short taking silver in the men's 400m freestyle over the red white and blue. The World Aquatics Championships is a major international competition attracting the world's best aquatic athletes in a range of disciplines extending from swimming and diving to water polo. But the US's downfall is a sad one after it was revealed the team is battling an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis, which initially started taking out swimmers in the lead up to the event. Officials from the team explained the illness originated from a pre-meet training camp that the side undertook in Phuket, Thailand, which affected the sides' performances on Sunday. US Swimming spokesperson Nikki Warner said all team members travelled to Singapore but did not specify how many were affected by the condition. Reports suggested 'almost half' of the roster had come down with illness, however it was from the broadcast vision there were at least three. Just moments before the women's freestyle relay final won by Australia, Olympics relay gold medalist Gretchen Walsh pulled out of the race. While Torri Huske did manage to get through the same race, the reigning Olympic 100m butterfly champion had to withdraw from the preliminary heats of her signature race. 18-year-old Claire Weinstein was also omitted from the 400m freestyle, while 16-year-old Luca Mijatovic, the youngest US male swimmer to compete at a World Championships since Michael Phelps in 2001, was also pulled from the same men's event. The teenager courageously competed in the freestyle prelims, however was visibly unwell during it as he locked in at a whopping 15 seconds slower than his entry time. The only positive for the Americans was that their most lauded swimmer Katie Ledecky seemed unaffected by the illness as she posted the fasted qualifying time in the women's 40mm freestyle prelims and is set to face off in the final. The Championships were set to be a resurgent moment for the US after the team only claimed eight golds at the recent Paris games, their lowest number in almost 40 years. Meanwhile Aussie Chalmers praised his relay team full of youth and desire to replicate their success at the upcoming LA Olympics. 'We've won bronze, bronze, silver. I really desperately want to win a gold medal in a few years' time,' he said. The US team will be hoping they can shake off their unfortunate illness woes and recoup their losses with seven more days of the Championship still remaining.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
'Greatest in history': Chalmers blows swimming world away as Titmus put on notice
Kyle Chalmers has been lauded as one of the greatest anchor swimmers of all time having reeled in a huge lead from Italy and the US to win gold in the men's 4x100m relay at the world championships in Singapore. Meanwhile, Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh has once again proven her superstardom having blitzed the field in the women's 400m relay in the absence of Ariarne Titmus. The Aussie relay team consisting of Chalmers, Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Maximillian Giuliani were expected to finish behind the US and Italy and they trailed heading into the final 100m. However Chalmers cemented his status as one of the greatest anchor swimmers Australia has ever seen having chased down Italy to win in a championship record time of 3:08.97. Italy finished in second at 3:09.58 and the fading US (3:09.64) finished third, but it was Chalmers' final 100m dash that left the swimming world in awe. Chalmers swam his leg in 46.53 seconds, which is a clear fastest-time for the race, toppling China's Zhanle Pan. Aussie Taylor had the fourth-best split of any swimmer with all four members doing their role to help secure the championship record. Teammate Southam was left in awe of Chalmers' final leg having claimed he was cheering him on across the final 100 metres. "I've kind of lost my voice already from cheering so hard," Southam said. "I'm just so happy to be here, and we all swam out of our skin, and we did it for the country, and we're so proud of ourselves." Swimming world praises Kyle Chalmers feat Chalmers has been in fantastic form in 2025 after the 26-year-old touched in at 47.29 at the Aussie trials last month. At the time it was the third-fastest time of the year and Chalmers already recorded the second-fastest time of 2025. The silver medallist at the Paris Olympic Games admitted he is enjoying his swimming since competing in Paris and taking the pressure of himself has seem him produce some of the best swimming of his career. And Aussie fans were quick to laud the sprinter as arguably Australia's greatest ever anchor. KYLE CHALMERS IS THE GREATEST ANCHOR SWIMMER IN you can't change my mind.#AQUASingapore2025 — John Dean (@JohnDean_) July 27, 2025 Kyle Chalmers is Winx of the water… Australian team can be 20 lengths last and Kyle can still catch up and beat everyone… — 𝒦𝒾𝓂𝒷𝑒𝓇𝓁𝑒𝑒 𝐻𝑜𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓇 || Sydney N1️⃣🫶 (@kimhooper268) July 27, 2025 Kyle Chalmers easily the greatest male sprint swimmer ever Australia has ever had! @SwimmingAUS — Mick Carroll (@MickCarroll1967) July 27, 2025 King Kyle. Kyle Chalmers with a monster anchor leg for Australia to win gold in the men's 400 free relay. Italy gets up for second over the U.S. A lot to unpack from the first day in Singapore. — Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) July 27, 2025 Summer McIntosh puts Ariarne Titmus on notice Canadian McIntosh headed into the world championships with plenty of hype around the 18-year-old having shattered a number of world records at her national trials. And the young superstar already showed why she will be the biggest name in the pool come the 2028 Olympics having dominated the 400m freestyle winning with a time of 3:52.26. This was nearly two seconds faster than China's Li Bingjie and well ahead of American legend great Katie Ledecky in bronze. This was McIntosh's first world title at 18 years old as she eyes five medals at the event. And her performance would have put Aussie Titmus on notice who is skipping the championships to focus on the Olympics. Lani Pallister (3:58.87) produced a personal-best effort, but finished fourth in the event. Titmus is taking time away from the pool after the Paris Games. Titmus saw fellow Aussie Lani Pallister break her 800m national record last month in Australia, and then McIntosh break the 400m world record in the Canadian trials. And McIntosh just delivered on the big stage at just 18 years old. Titmus is set to return after the championships with one eye on the Olympics, but she will have one eye on world record holder McIntosh who is only getting faster in every event she competes in. And she even claimed fans haven't seen her at her best in the 400m event. "I think the 400 freestyle in past world championships and Olympics, I haven't been at my best and I haven't been where I want to be," she said. "So to finally stand on the centre of the podium is promising for the rest of the meet." Such is McIntosh's talent, she couldn't celebrate her 400m gold for too long having to immediately prepare for the 200m individual medley semi-final. Summer McIntosh has won the 400m freestyle gold. And made it look looked so in control from start to finish. Jumped out of the pool and is now preparing for the 200m the best swimmer on the planet right now folks. And she's from Canada. — Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) July 27, 2025
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Double golden joy as Australia's swimmers triumph at world championships
Australia ended the opening night of the swimming world championships with a dose of double golden joy after the country's men and women prevailed in the 4x100m freestyle relay events. There was heartbreak to begin the night after Australian Sam Short was pipped by 0.02 of a second by German world record holder Lukas Maertens in a thrilling 400m men's freestyle showdown in Singapore. But the relay events proved to be Australia's saviour, propelling them to the top of the standings. First, Olivia Wunsch pulled off a huge late comeback to fire Australia to an upset victory over the US in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay. Then Kyle Chalmers achieved the same result for Australia's men, reeling in a sizeable lead from the US to snare gold. The Australian coaching staff celebrated wildly upon each victory. Australia entered Sunday night's 4x100m women's relay with a new-look team featuring Mollie O'Callaghan, Meg Harris, Milla Jansen and Wunsch. The US were hot favourites to win, but Australia threw a spanner into the works by clawing their way into the lead by the time Wunsch dived into the water for the final leg. American Torri Huske quickly re-took the lead and held a half-length margin with 50m remaining before Woods came storming home to snatch victory. 'I definitely can't believe it,' Jansen told Channel 9. 'This is something that I wanted growing up. I was feeling very nervous coming into this, but it's just a dream come true.' Australia finished in a time of 3:30.60, with the US (3:31.04) in second. The Australian men followed suit, with the quartet of Chalmers, Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Maximillian Giuliani posting a world championship-record time of 3:08.97 to defeat Italy (3:09.58) and the fading US (3:09.64). 'I've kind of lost my voice already from cheering so hard,' Southam said. 'I'm just so happy to be here, and we all swam out of our skin, and we did it for the country, and we're so proud of ourselves.' Earlier, in the first medal event of the championships, Short overcame an early deficit to hit the lead with less than half the race remaining. The 21-year-old still led by a fingernail with 50m to go, and was neck-and-neck with Maertens right until the end. Sign up to Australia Sport Get a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports desk after newsletter promotion Short, the 2023 world champion who finished fourth at the Paris Olympics, couldn't hide his disappointment upon touching the wall and seeing he had lost by two hundredths of a second. Maertens, the Olympic champion, posted 3:42.35 to narrowly beat Short (3:42.37). South Korea's Kim Woomin finished third in 3:42.60. 'I won two years ago by 0.02 and today I just lost by 0.02,' Short said. 'I'm happy to be back on the podium after a hard last year. So, you know, I can't complain. 'I just want to dedicate that performance there to my auntie who passed away a couple weeks ago. As bad I was hurting there, it's nowhere near as bad as her battling cancer for 10 years. So I had to toughen up and get it done.' In a stacked women's 400m freestyle field, Australian Lani Pallister (3:58.87) produced a personal-best effort but it was only enough to finish fourth. Canadian world record holder Summer McIntosh (3:56.26) blitzed the field to win gold, China's Li Bingjie surged late to finish second, while the legendary Katie Ledecky had to be content with bronze. Australia's 400m Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus didn't feature after deciding to skip the world championships to give herself a mental and physical breather.
ABC News
2 days ago
- Sport
- ABC News
Australian relay teams win gold on day one of world swimming championships
The Australian swimming team has had an outstanding start to the World Aquatics Championships, winning two gold and a silver to open the competition. Australia's men's and women's 4x100m freestyle relay teams both claimed gold, while Sam Short won silver in the men's 400 metre freestyle. The all-conquering women's 4x100m freestyle relay team won gold ahead the US in second and the Netherlands in third, to extend a major championship winning run that began with a world record set at the 2018 Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast. The Australian men's team followed up just minutes later with a stunning come-from-behind win anchored by veteran Kyle Chalmers to set a championship record of 3:08.07 ahead of Italy, with the US favourites in third. Chalmers dived in with Australia in third place after earlier legs by Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Maximilliam Giuliani, but stormed home in 46.53 seconds to secure the victory. "It's so good to be part of a relay team that's so young and hungry and eager to have success in LA like I am," Chalmers said. "We've won bronze, bronze, silver, I really desperately want to win a gold medal in a few years' time." Southam said the goal for himself, Taylor and Giuliani "was just to give Kyle a punter's hope". "And we all did our job extraordinarily well, but we came together and represented the country, so there's no greater honour, I think, and to do it in a relay is so much more special than an individual event," Southam said. Giuliani said the result, on the first day of the swimming competition in Singapore, was "unbelievable". "We spoke about it the first day we came together on staging … and to deliver on that in great fashion — I mean championship record [and] we weren't too far off the world record," he said. "I think we've got a whole lot of potential in this team." The women's race was equally dramatic. Mollie O'Callaghan led out and established a lead by the first change, which was extended in the following two legs swum by Meg Harris and Milla Jansen. In the final leg, Olivia Wunsch was chased down by Olympic relay gold medallist Torri Huske, who turned at the 350m mark in first place. But Wunsch turned on the afterburners to reclaim first place, touching the wall in 3:30.6 seconds. "I just wanted to power home and give it all I had and it's really exciting to be able to stand up with a gold medal today," Wunsch said. "I love racing, and I love anchoring a relay so that was really exciting. O'Callaghan said the team was "very nervous leading up to this". "I thought I've just got to try my best for these three girls and especially the girls in the heat," she said. "It's nice to know that we have a strong set-up for LA and Brisbane and, yeah, I'm very confident in these girls and it's going to be a great week." The US team had been rocked by a case of gastroenteritis that has gone through the team after a staging camp in Thailand. Just minutes before the final, multiple Olympic relay gold medallist, Gretchen Walsh pulled out of the team. But Huske said the team wasn't making excuses. "I don't want to speak to how much it's affected us necessarily," she said. "We've done a really good job in staying resilient." Earlier in the night, Sam Short fell agonisingly short of a gold medal, losing by just 0.02 seconds to German world record holder Lukas Martens. Short's time of 3:42.37 was 0.3 seconds slower than the time he swam in the morning's heats. But rather than express disappointment, Short said he was pleased to be back on a world championship podium after previously taking gold at the 2023 championships in Fukuoka. "So happy to be back on the podium," he said. "It was a pleasure to race the Olympic champion, world record holder and now world champion, so I knew he was going to be a tough opponent. "I'm really proud of how hard I pushed myself and you know, .02, it's not the end of the world, silver medal, I get to get back on the podium and long meet to come." He said the result was some consolation after a disappointing campaign at the Paris Olympic Games, where he was a chance to win the gold medal in the 400m freestyle but narrowly missed bronze in the final. He then missed the finals of the 800m and 1500m and dubbed his Olympic Games "a failure". As to why he swam slower in the evening than his morning time, which would have won gold, he said in hindsight he could have gone slower in his heat swim. "I felt comfortable this morning, I actually felt I could have gone 3:40 this morning," he said. "So, you know just a high-pressure environment, backing that up, small turnaround and also a great field as well. "When I was with him with 100 to go, I knew it was going to be a dogfight — he's a pretty good level, he's the world record holder. "I knew I wasn't going to be pulling away and I was hurting as well. "I've got a good finish on me, and it wasn't quite good enough today." Short still has swims in the 800m and 1500m freestyle events and the men's 4x200m freestyle relay. In the women's 400m freestyle final, Lani Pallister was in second until the 250m mark, but faded to finish fourth behind world record holder Summer McIntosh. China's Bingjie Li was second, with US veteran Katie Ledecky in third. McIntosh's campaign to claim five individual gold medals at a world championships is on track and while her time of 3:56.26 is more than two seconds slower than the world record she set earlier this year, it was still two seconds faster than Li. Pallister's time of 3:58.87 was a personal best. "I think fourth is a bit shit, but if it's fourth and a PB you can't really ask for more," Pallister said. Pallister said a young girl from Singapore had given her a pin with a picture of her when she was five. She said she was looking at the pin as she made her way into the pool on Sunday night. "That little girl would think that I was like the coolest person in the world, to be standing in that final, let alone being fourth," she said. Another Australian, Pallister's lifelong friend Jamie Perkins, was sixth in a personal best time of 4:03.2. Perkins said she was "pretty disappointed", despite the personal best time, but said she was learning. "I'm still young, so see what we get moving forward," Perkins said.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Double golden joy as Australia triumph at world champs
Australia have ended the opening night of the swimming world championships with a dose of double golden joy after the country's men and women prevailed in the 4x100m freestyle relay events. The night started with heartbreak, with Australian Sam Short falling agonisingly short of adding a second world title to his name when pipped by German world record holder Lukas Maertens in a thrilling 400m men's freestyle showdown in Singapore. But the relay events proved to be Australia's saviour. First, Olivia Wunsch pulled off a huge late comeback to fire Australia to an upset victory over the US in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay. Then Kyle Chalmers achieved the same result for Australia's men, reeling in a sizeable lead from the US to snare gold. The Australian coaching staff celebrated wildly upon each victory. Australia entered Sunday night's 4x100m women's relay with a new-look team featuring Mollie O'Callaghan, Meg Harris, Milla Jansen and Wunsch. The US were favourites to win, but Australia threw a spanner into the works by clawing their way into the lead by the time Wunsch dived into the water for the final leg. American Torri Huske quickly re-took the lead and held a half length margin with 50m remaining before Woods came storming home to snatch victory. Australia finished in a time of 3:30.60, with the US (3:31.04) in second. Earlier, in the first medal event of the championships, Short overcame an early deficit to hit the lead with less than half the race remaining. The 21-year-old still led by a fingernail with 50m to go, and was neck-and-neck with Maertens right until the end. Short, the 2023 world champion who finished fourth at the Paris Olympics, couldn't hide his disappointment upon touching the wall and seeing he lost by two hundredths of a second. 🇩🇪 Lukas Martens activating the afterburners for a sprint finish to claim gold in the Men's 400m free 🤯 #Swimming #AQUASingapore25 — World Aquatics (@WorldAquatics) July 27, 2025 Maertens, the Olympic champion, posted 3:42.35 to narrowly beat Short (3:42.37). South Korea's Kim Woomin finished third in 3:42.60. "I won two years ago by 0.02 and today I just lost by 0.02," Short told channel 9. "I'm happy to be back on the podium after a hard last year. So, you know, I can't complain. "I just want to dedicate that performance there to my auntie who passed away a couple weeks ago, "As bad I was hurting there, it's nowhere near as bad as her battling cancer for 10 years. "So I had to toughen up and get it done." And the winner is: Summer McIntosh!This is her first World Aquatics Championships's Gold Medal on the 400m Freestyle!#AQUASingapore #Swimming — World Aquatics (@WorldAquatics) July 27, 2025 Australian Olympic silver medallist Elijah Winnington failed to qualify for the final of the 400m freestyle after posting a time of 3:46.37 to finish 10th overall during the preliminary sessions earlier in the day. In a stacked women's 400m freestyle field, Australian Lani Pallister (3:58.87) produced a personal-best effort but it was only enough to finish fourth. Canadian world record holder Summer McIntosh (3:56.26) blitzed the field to win gold, China's Li Bingjie surged late to finish second, while the legendary Katie Ledecky had to be content with bronze. Australia's 400m Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus didn't feature after deciding to skip the world championships to give herself a mental and physical breather.
