Belief high for swim star at Comm Games trials

Joanna Guelas | June 11, 2026

Despite ten years of trying, Australian swim star Kyle Chalmers is still in pursuit of the perfect race.

The Olympic gold medallist secured his spot at this year’s Commonwealth Games by taking the men’s 100m freestyle on Thursday night at Australia’s swimming trials.

After qualifying fifth, Chalmers fended off a challenge from Finn Southam to touch in 47.59 seconds at Sydney Olympic Park.

Southam trailed by 0.3 seconds to finish runner-up, with Kai Taylor third (48.21).

The 27-year-old Chalmers had set a 100m butterfly personal best of 51.04 seconds earlier in the week, but pulled out of the final.

Inspired by 32-year-old Cameron McEvoy’s newly-claimed 50m freestyle world record, Chalmers was adamant he could reach another level.

Chalmers will also compete in Saturday’s 50m butterfly event.

“The day that I no longer believe I’m capable of swimming a personal best time is the day that I probably step away from the sport,” Chalmers said.

“I still haven’t been able to put it together yet. Like, tonight I broke out on the wrong hand, which meant that I was really long into the turn.

“It’s those small things that add up to slow you down when it comes down to a fraction or milliseconds.

“That’s what excites me, is that I haven’t been able to put the perfect 100 together in one race. I’ve done parts of it in different races, but never done it all at once – ten years is a very long time.”

Chalmers credited the birth of his first child, daughter Astrid, last year in helping him raise the bar.

“I’ve never been happier in life – a happy swimmer is a fast swimmer,” Chalmers said.

Earlier on Thursday, Kaylee McKeown completed the backstroke trifecta by taking out the 200m crown in two minutes 3.98 seconds.

Shaking off an illness to claim victory in the 50m and 100m events earlier in the week, the five-time Olympic gold medallist admitted she had “died in the back end” of Thursday’s race.

“When you think back to when you’re younger, you jump up a tree and then jump out of the tree and not necessarily think about breaking your arm,” McKeown said.

“The older you get, the more you think about that and it’s the same with swimming. For me, I just think about the pain of this event. I don’t necessarily think about the race itself anymore. It’s like dreading the pain.

“I knew it was going to be challenging with the week that I’ve had so far, so I just said to myself, ‘go out’.”