Kyle Chalmers Withdraws from Short Course World Championships
It has been a remarkable short course season for 23-year-old Australian Kyle Chalmers. After he claimed silver in the 100 freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics and guided Australia to a pair of relay medals, he returned to compete for the London Roar in the ISL and on his own in the FINA World Cup. He produced a series of remarkable results, including a world record in the short course 100 free at the FINA World Cup in Kazan. Chalmers produced a 44.84 to clip a tenth off Amaury Leveaux’s 13-year-old world record of 44.94.
Following the ISL final, where Chalmers won the 100 free, he was scheduled to conclude his short course season at the World Championships in Abu Dhabi (Dec. 16-21) as one of only two Australians competing along with Holly Barratt. However, Chalmers announced that he will be pulling out of Abu Dhabi because of a shoulder injury. Chalmers announced the news in a video on FINA’s Instagram page, and he said he has already returned to Australia to prepare for a possible surgery.
“My short course season has been based around performing at World Short Course and preparing myself physically, mentally, emotionally to swim my best in Abh Dhabi, where it counts the most. But my shoulder has unfortunately gone on me, and I’ve had to return back to Australia to get that looked at and potentially have surgery in the next couple weeks to have a bit of a clean-out and prepare myself,” Chalmers said in the video.
I have to get myself in the best position I possibly can for the upcoming years. With the Olympics only being two-and-a-half years away, it’s important to get my body right. I’m very devastated with the news. Obviously, I’ve been swimming quite well short course. I broke that world record a few weeks ago, which was nice, and I was really looking forward to turning one on in Abu Dhabi for everyone, but it’s going to have to wait until potentially next year.
Chalmers has dealt with a myriad of health issues during his career, including a heart issue that kept him out of the 2019 World Championships, and he had surgery on his left shoulder at the end of last year. This current injury is a to his right shoulder, but after successfully navigating similar procedures in the past, Chalmers believes that a clean-up surgery will be no serious impediment to performing well in international competition next year or in the run-up to the 2024 Olypics in Paris.
“I know that I’ve done it before, I’ve gotten myself back, so I know that I’ll be completely fine,” Chalmers said. “Just a bit of a clean-out to prepare myself for the next chapter, and obviously, the next chapter is going to be the biggest one I’ve had as my career. I’m hungrier and more motivated than I’ve ever been in my career to come back and win that gold in Paris, so that’s all the motivation I need to get back from this one.”
Watch the full video from FINA below:
It takes me back to James Magnussen who did a lot of racing after the 2013 world champs and contributed to shoulder injuries which he never really recovered fully from .. I really hope the same doesn’t happen for Kyle Chalmers and he can manage the injury moving forward