Townsville Bulletin

AUSSIE SWIM STARS BACK IN THE DEEP END

No rest as Chalmers and Mckeon throw themselves into the ISL experience in Europe, writes EMMA GREENWOOD

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KYLE Chalmers is set to face his Olympic conqueror this weekend after cutting short his post-olympic break to lead London Roar in the Internatio­nal Swimming League. Chalmers and Tokyo Games star Emma Mckeon left Australia last week for an extended overseas sojourn, with Chalmers expecting to be away for the next 20 weeks. Chalmers was back in Adelaide for just 10 days with family and friends before leaving for the ISL.

But the chance to lead the Roar franchise and earn enough money to support his training program through to the Paris

Olympics was too good an opportunit­y to pass up.

“We’re lucky that ISL’S happening at the moment, I’m really looking forward to getting over to the ISL and competing with my team the London Roar,” Chalmers said.

“I’m actually the captain of the team, so I’m really looking forward to getting over there and doing well.”

Chalmers will take on US sprint star and Cali Condors captain Caeleb Dressel when he heads back into action in

Naples, Italy, this weekend. After returning to Australia and undergoing two weeks of quarantine with the swim team in the Northern Territory before reuniting with family and friends in South Australia, training had not been a priority.

He is looking forward to the clash against Dressel, who beat him to gold in the 100m freestyle by just 0.06sec but, given he has not trained for a month after the Games, has few expectatio­ns.

“I’ll probably be pretty dusty,” Chalmers said. “He (Dressel) has stayed in pretty good nick it seems and has raced already over at the ISL.

“I’ll be saving my best swims for the finals towards the end of the season but it’ll be good to have a hitout against him – and catch up with him, he’s a great mate of mine.

“It’ll definitely be a rude shock standing up on the blocks. He’ll be looking pretty lean and mean and I’ll probably have the dad bod running, but

I’m looking forward to it.”

Chalmers does not expect to be back in Australia until next February, which means he faces a packed schedule in

2022, with n a t i o n a l c h a m - p i o n - ships in

A p r i l , w o r l d c h a m - pionships in Japan in

May and the Commonweal­th

Games in England in July-august. But he says the sacrifice is worthwhile. “Every opportunit­y I have to race is going to benefit me,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to getting over there and hopefully winning some prizemoney. “The more money I can make over this little period, the better I’m going to be in Paris (at the 2024 Olympics) because it will allow me to take my swimming to the next level and be as profession­al as I can.” Mckeon, who became Australia’s most successful Olympian after winning seven medals in Tokyo, said the ISL would provide a break from the regular routine of training.

“I’m part of the London Roar team, so I’ll go over and do that, which I think will be a bit of fun,” Mckeon said.

“It’s definitely a different way to race so I feel like that will be a nice mental break. “Even though I’m still swimming, it’ll be a lot of fun with that team and just a different format, different way of racing.”

Mckeon said the incredible precaution­s athletes had taken to avoid any chance of catching Covid-19 meant there was little social interactio­n at the Games, and she was looking forward to catching up with friends.

“It was different because I didn’t really stop and chat to many people at all. We were just so careful about what we w e r e d o i n g , ” she said. “We didn’t know what the risk was going to be so it was best off just not to stop and chat to anyone for too long.”

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Emma Mckeon will hope to capture a share of the Internatio­nal Swimming League prizemoney. Pictures: GETTY IMAGES
Kyle Chalmers and (inset) Emma Mckeon will hope to capture a share of the Internatio­nal Swimming League prizemoney. Pictures: GETTY IMAGES
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