MALE ORDER

Olympic champ knows where he sits on the food chain

REIGNING Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers has denied he is the “alpha male” of the swim team despite heading into the Commonwealth Games as favourite for the blue riband 100m.

Chalmers deflected pressure from himself, saying he was a Commonwealth Games rookie and excited to be racing in a home Games.

The South Australian’s clash against Cameron McEvoy in the 100m is shaping as one of the most anticipated events of the Games but Chalmers is not a fan of the spotlight and said he would not change the relaxed approach that helped him snare gold in Rio.

“There’s no way I feel like the alpha,” Chalmers said. “I’m a rookie again.

“It seems like every time I make the team I’m a rookie in some way, so I’m just excited to be racing on home soil and have my friends and family come up to watch.

“It’s going to be good having my grandparents, especially, up in the stands.”

The Games will mark the return to international competition for Chalmers after surgery to correct the heart condition supraventricular tachycardia and he said his efforts to win the 100m-200m double at trials had provided a confidence boost ahead of the meet.

“Trials gave me a lot of confidence just due to not having that racing experience over the last year,” he said. “I raced Queensland states and Victorian states and didn’t swim as well as I was expecting. Normally it just happens for me. I just roll through states and it goes pretty well.

“But to not have that issue was strange and I probably went into trials lacking confidence in a way not knowing where I was at or how I was going to swim.

“The 200m was the first race for me (at trials) and to swim well and get a PB really made that meet worth it for me and gave me that confidence going into the 100m,” he said.

Chalmers said he had “no idea” whether he would have to beat his winning times at trials to win Games gold, admitting he did not follow the sport closely at the international level. “I have no idea,” he said.

“I have no idea what happened (at the last Commonwealth Games) in Glasgow, I know we got top three.”

Maintaining that personal bubble was more difficult as the Olympic champion but Chalmers said he wanted to stay true to the relaxed approach that had worked so well for him in Rio.