World Aquatics Championships 2023: Kyle Chalmers completes set with gold in a men's 100m freestyle full of surprises
Defending champion Popovici's woes in the pool continue as he finished off the podium for the second consecutive race.
Swimming
Australia's Kyle Chalmers has claimed the one medal he had missing for his set in the blue ribbon men's 100m freestyle event, winning the World Aquatics Championships title at the 2023 edition in Fukuoka, Japan on Thursday (27 July).
The Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion in the event surged into the lead in the final few metres to touch the wall in 47.15 in a race live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com (territorial restrictions apply).
“It's one that I've been desperate to do for quite some time and I did have doubt in my mind at times that I wouldn't be able to achieve that,"Chalmers said after the race. "There's always a lot of pressure and expectation on me to perform and to win gold so that's a moment that I'll cherish for a very long time.
"It's a moment that I trained for six days a week, 50 weeks of the year, is that exact feeling that I'm feeling right now is standing on the top of the podium singing my national anthem proudly and having a gold medal around my neck.”
In addition to today's gold medal, Chalmers also has long course 100m titles at the Olympics, Commonwealth, Pan Pacific, and Oceania championships, plus a short course world title in the distance.
Kyle Chalmers: A testament of longevity
Chalmers was an underdog when he won Olympic gold in 2016 at the age of 18. Now 25, he was the oldest swimmers in the final at Fukuoka 2023 and under tremendous pressure to succeed.
“I've had to work so much harder for that moment tonight. (In) 2016, I was a 18 year old kid and to be honest, I didn't really know probably what I had achieved in that moment. It was just another stepping stone in that period that I was in," Chalmers said. "I've had to work so hard for seven years, sacrifice so much, go through heart surgery, shoulder surgeries, some pretty bad mental health times throughout this last little period, so I know how much it means to me, my family, my friends.”
The 100m freestyle final in Fukuoka saw Chalmers take 0.43 seconds off the time that earned him Olympic gold seven years ago and 0.36 seconds off his winning time at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
He also swam faster than the winning time from the previous edition of the world championships.
“There were times where I thought that I'd never get back to swimming fast. I wasn't overly fast for probably two years after Rio,” Chalmers said. “For me to stand up as a 25 year old, the oldest guy in that race tonight, to stand on top of the podium finally in a world championship final is so special. It's a moment that I've envisioned for quite some time.
"I train to win. I don't train just to make up the numbers. I want to win the race every time. I'm a competitive beast so for me, I'm very happy with that.”
Popovici off the podium, again
The odds in the 100m freestyle final at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships were stacked against Chalmers with a packed field that included defending world champion David Popovici.
The Romanian swimmer was eager to put the shock defeat in the 200m freestyle behind him. Surprisingly, it was USA's Jack Alexy swimming in lane 8 who took the lead at the start of the 100m race. Alexy faded in the last metres to take silver with 47.13, while the bronze medal went to another suprise finisher, France's Maxime Grousset, swimming in lane 1.
Popovici finished sixth, but remained optimistic about his future.
“As soon as I touched the wall in the 200, this thought flashed in my head, which was ‘I need to train better’. I need to train more and most importantly, I need to be more consistent because, that's the glue that holds it all together," he said after the race.
"Fortunately for me, what hasn't gone perfectly here is trainable so as long as I take care of my training, be more consistent than I've been this year, which had a lot of ups and downs, I'm going to be just fine.”