Swimming star Kyle Chalmers hints at post-Olympics retirement

Australia’s world champion freestyler Kyle Chalmers is hinting at retirement after next year’s Olympic Games.

The 25-year-old says the Paris Games will be his last Olympics.

“It probably will be the last Olympics, definitely, for me,” Chalmers told SEN radio on Wednesday.

Chalmers, who turns 26 before the Paris Olympics starting in July next year, won a long-coveted world championship 100 metres freestyle crown in Fukuoka, Japan, last month.

“Even this year being in the (world championships) marshalling room, I was the oldest in the race,” he said.

“The guys are 2003, 2004 born now.

“(World 100m freestyle record holder) David Popovici, the Romanian boy, has just turned 18; the Aussie boy Flynn Southam coming through, he’s just turned 18.

“A lot of young guys rolling through and I’m definitely the old man in the marshalling room now.

“(After the Olympics) I will be old and probably ready to start the next chapter of my life. We’ll see what happens.”

Chalmers won Olympic 100m freestyle gold in 2016 but the world title in his pet event eluded him until last month.

“There is no better feeling,” he said.

“I obviously worked so hard for it day-in, day-out, for such a long period of time.

“I have been to four world championships now and have never been able to have been on top of the podium.

“To do that this time around was a feeling, that high, that you kind of chase every single day and what motivates you in the pool every single day, so to have that feeling, it’s very satisfying.

“I have got to try and find the next thing to chase, luckily for me the Olympics is next year so that will give me a bit of motivation again.”