Kyle has peace in life with lizards
OLYMPIC champion. AFL tragic. Lizard king?
Champion swimmer Kyle Chalmers is a closet reptile fan who keeps native lizards in his garage and has a cult Instagram following through his Blue Tongues of Adelaide page.
Lizards, Chalmers says, are his mindset.
It’s one of the more bizarre statements you’ll ever hear from an elite sportsman.
But it’s one that could help Chalmers become one of the stars of next month’s Commonwealth Games.
The Adelaide teen admits he struggled to deal with the spotlight on him after his 100m freestyle win at the Rio Games in 2016.
“I probably pushed everything aside and thought swimming was me after the Olympics,” Chalmers said.
“And now I’m trying to re- find all those loves that I had that helped me perform.”
It turns out reptiles is among the biggest of those loves.
“I’m obsessed with Blue- tongued skinks ( thing),” he said.
“I’ve got about 16 of them. I’ve got all the super- rare ones like albinos.
“I’m right into it. ( I keep them in tanks) in my garage. I’ve got a licence and everything.”
Chalmers is a big deal in Australia’s lizard community but it’s unclear whether followers of the Instagram handle adl_ bluetongues know they’re connecting with an Olympic champion when they view his posts.
“I’ve formed a lot of friends in the lizard community,” he said.
“It’s a weird thing to say. It’s a great community. I’ve got friends all around Australia that I’ll catch reptiles. are my up with now and they know me as Adelaide Bluetongues ( adl_ bluetongues), that’s my Instagram page. “I’m obsessed.” Serious collecting can mean serious money and logistics too, including live freighting around the country.
“Some lizards sell for up to 10 grand — there’s a lot of money in lizards,” Chalmers said.
“An albino blue- tongue goes for about $ 1500 and they’ll have 20 babies at a time and they sell ridiculously quickly, it’s unbelievable.”
The obsession is proving healthy for Chalmers’ swimming.
He won the 100m and 200m freestyle at the national selection trials at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre last week and ahead of the Commonwealth Games is returning to the form that led him to gold in Rio.
It’s partly because he has balance back in his life.
“( Keeping lizards again) is probably the thing that’s made me that normal because I’m able to be Adelaide Bluetongues on Instagram and go to the pool and be the swimmer and then go home and it’s back to lizards,” he said.