I'm the underdog, says Australian swim great Chalmers
Chalmers is aiming to become a dual 100m freestyle world champion, joining James Magnussen (2011, 2013) as Australian men to achieve the feat.
"I'm the major underdog," said Chalmers ahead of Thursday night's final in Singapore.
"I'm really enjoying being able to just fly under the radar.
"This is my fifth world championships and 10th year on the senior team and I have been able to achieve everything that freestyle has to offer.
"So it's honestly about actually having fun and just enjoying being in there."
Chalmers has already won gold at the worlds in Singapore when anchoring Australia's 4x100m freestyle relay team on Sunday's opening night.
The Dolphins remain top of the medal tally with four gold medals, one silver and three bronze. The illness-hit United States (three gold) are next-best.
Mollie O'Callaghan added gold to Australia's collection on Wednesday night with victory in the women's 200m freestyle.
O'Callaghan, a five-time Olympic gold medallist, weathered a let-down after last year's Paris Games and took an extended break to find her identity outside of the pool.
On return, a dislocated knee hampered preparations for selection trials but the 21-year-old has emerged to rediscover a love for her sport.
"A positive environment definitely makes a world of difference," O'Callaghan said.
"It's nice to come to a pool and feel at home; to know that everyone supports you no matter what.
"The Australian team in general is just so connected, and we all treat each other like a family, which makes it such an enjoyable ride."
O'Callaghan returns to action on Thursday with 100m freestyle heats and semi-finals also featuring teammate Meg Harris.
And O'Callaghan also looms as the trump card on Australia's women's 4x200m freestyle team, who carry favouritism into their Thursday night final.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Snug fit: Beau signs again as 'dream' county recruit
Australia's burgeoning Test allrounder Beau Webster has been hailed as a "dream overseas recruit" as English county side Warwickshire announced they've snapped up the Tasmanian gun to enjoy a second season at Edgbaston. Webster has signed a deal to play for the Birmingham-based county from the beginning of next season until the last week of July 2026 after the club was left hugely impressed by his allround contribution this year. The man from Snug enjoyed a three-month spell in the Midlands, never looking back after top-scoring for Warwickshire with 85 on debut as his side earned a five-wicket victory against Yorkshire at Headingley. We can't wait to welcome you back Beau 🙌Story 📝 #YouBears — Bears (@WarwickshireCCC) August 7, 2025 His spell helped him seal selection for Australia's World Test Championship final quest against South Africa at Lord's in June, when he also top-scored with 72 in the first innings. After playing a further three Tests for Australia in the Caribbean, scoring two half-centuries and taking five wickets, the 31-year-old returned to Edgbaston last month, scoring a half-century and an unbeaten hundred as well as taking four wickets in Warwickshire's victory over local rivals Worcestershire. Match winning performances 🤝🐻 #YouBears — Bears (@WarwickshireCCC) July 25, 2025 In all, he amassed 361 runs at an average of 45.12 and took 16 wickets at 26.56 in the red-ball Championship, though the club will be hoping he plays some limited-overs games too next season. "Beau has been a dream overseas recruit," Warwickshire first-team coach Ian Westwood told the club website. "He is a triple-threat player of top international calibre, and we cannot wait to welcome him back next April. It's great news for the club and us as a team." Webster himself added: "I have loved my time with the Bears in 2025. "My teammates, coaching and support staff and Edgbaston facilities are absolute top tier, and it did not take me long to agree to return in 2026."
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
U.S. women's gymnastics program begins new Olympic cycle, possible new era
Simone Biles was recently in an uncharacteristic place at a gymnastics event: the spectator seats. At a July tune-up meet, Biles watched the gymnasts who this week will compete for the title she won a record nine times: U.S. all-around champion. We don't know yet whether any of Biles and two-time Olympians Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles will return to elite competition in the run-up to Los Angeles 2028. The headliners at this week's Xfinity U.S. Championships include a mix: veterans like two-time Olympic alternate Leanne Wong, first-year seniors like 16-year-old Claire Pease (who won that July event in front of Biles) and those somewhere in between, like Hezly Rivera, a 17-year-old who was on the 2024 Olympic champion team. 2025 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships: How to watch, schedule, preview NBC Sports and Peacock air live coverage of the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships from New Orleans. Nick Zaccardi, After nationals and an early fall selection camp, four women will be named to compete at October's World Championships, where there are only individual events. It is guaranteed that a new all-around champion will be crowned after two days of competition Friday and Sunday in New Orleans. Not only is Biles absent, but so is the only other woman to claim the title in the last six editions (Konnor McClain, 2022). Others are now stepping into the spotlight. Joscelyn Roberson, a 2024 Olympic alternate who trained with Biles in Texas leading up to Paris, said she received such adulation from young fans at a recent meet that, "I feel like they're acting like I'm Simone." It's a new feeling. "If I ever got super, super nervous (in the past), I could be like, 'Oh, no one's watching me. They're watching Simone. They're watching Jordan. They're watching Suni and Jade. They're not watching me,'" Roberson, a rising University of Arkansas sophomore, said in a press conference Wednesday. "But now it's kind of hard because you are older and you're one of the oldest, even though we are still so young. It's like, OK, maybe they are kind of watching me. It adds a different level of nerves, but I love it. I love a big crowd." Joscelyn Roberson bonded with gymnastics legends. Now she competes with them. Rising star Joscelyn Roberson is a contender at the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships. Nick Zaccardi, Wong, who graduated magna cum laude from the University of Florida with a degree in health education and behavior, is the veteran of the group at 21. She decided to continue in elite gymnastics after finishing her NCAA career in the spring. "I just took the summer to do some other life things," she said, including a mission trip to Costa Rica, moving into a new house and having her wisdom teeth removed. "It was like, all right, let's just go back to gymnastics because I'm not ready to put it away yet." Pease can become the first woman to win U.S. junior and senior all-around titles in back-to-back years since Shawn Johnson in 2006 and 2007. Pease was inspired last year by watching Rivera, one of her training partners outside Dallas, make it all the way to Paris. Key athletes to watch at the 2025 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships Meet the standouts and review the biggest storylines going into this weekend's Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships. Taylor Hancock, Rivera, the youngest U.S. Olympian across all sports in Paris, has gazed at her gold medal about once a month over the last year to wow herself all over again. She also put Olympic rings above her bed. 'My mindset is kind of like, I achieved my dreams, I achieved my goals, but I still have more (goals), so I kind of like to put that (the Olympics) in the back of my head for now,' Rivera said last month. 'Every time in the gym, I don't think that I went to the Olympics. I'm just kind of training like I've almost never been, in a way.' Training partners Jayla Hang, who has the highest all-around score of any American in 2025, and Simone Rose, who was second to Pease at a July tune-up meet, are motivated by 2024. For Hang, it's from not making the Olympic Trials after placing 16th at last year's U.S. Championships. For Rose, it's from making it to the Olympic Trials, where she placed 10th in the all-around as the second-youngest gymnast in the field. "It really helped me see I truly belong here," she said. The last three Olympic teams included returning gymnasts from the previous Games, including a record-tying four in 2024. But before that, the teams in 2004, 2008 and 2012 included zero returning Olympians. Skye Blakely, the 2024 U.S. Championships runner-up to Biles, is among those pushing for 2028. She made it to each of the last two Olympic Trials, but didn't compete either time due to injuries sustained preparing for the meet, including an Achilles tear last year. Blakely plans to perform on two events this week — uneven bars and balance beam — in her first elite meet in 14 months. "Knowing that trials didn't go the way I thought it was going to at all, and having this big injury, I was truly blessed at one moment to know that I still had on my heart the goal to want to go to the Olympics," she said. A resilient Skye Blakely returns at Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships Skye Blakely was a contender to make the 2024 Olympic team before an injury she called heartbreaking. Nick Zaccardi,
NBC Sports
2 hours ago
- NBC Sports
U.S. women's gymnastics program begins new Olympic cycle, possible new era
Simone Biles was recently in an uncharacteristic place at a gymnastics event: the spectator seats. At a July tune-up meet, Biles watched the gymnasts who this week will compete for the title she won a record nine times: U.S. all-around champion. We don't know yet whether any of Biles and two-time Olympians Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles will return to elite competition in the run-up to Los Angeles 2028. The headliners at this week's Xfinity U.S. Championships include a mix: veterans like two-time Olympic alternate Leanne Wong, first-year seniors like 16-year-old Claire Pease (who won that July event in front of Biles) and those somewhere in between, like Hezly Rivera, a 17-year-old who was on the 2024 Olympic champion team. Nick Zaccardi, After nationals and an early fall selection camp, four women will be named to compete at October's World Championships, where there are only individual events. It is guaranteed that a new all-around champion will be crowned after two days of competition Friday and Sunday in New Orleans. Not only is Biles absent, but so is the only other woman to claim the title in the last six editions (Konnor McClain, 2022). Others are now stepping into the spotlight. Joscelyn Roberson, a 2024 Olympic alternate who trained with Biles in Texas leading up to Paris, said she received such adulation from young fans at a recent meet that, 'I feel like they're acting like I'm Simone.' It's a new feeling. 'If I ever got super, super nervous (in the past), I could be like, 'Oh, no one's watching me. They're watching Simone. They're watching Jordan. They're watching Suni and Jade. They're not watching me,'' Roberson, a rising University of Arkansas sophomore, said in a press conference Wednesday. 'But now it's kind of hard because you are older and you're one of the oldest, even though we are still so young. It's like, OK, maybe they are kind of watching me. It adds a different level of nerves, but I love it. I love a big crowd.' Wong, who graduated magna cum laude from the University of Florida with a degree in health education and behavior, is the veteran of the group at 21. She decided to continue in elite gymnastics after finishing her NCAA career in the spring. 'I just took the summer to do some other life things,' she said, including a mission trip to Costa Rica, moving into a new house and having her wisdom teeth removed. 'It was like, all right, let's just go back to gymnastics because I'm not ready to put it away yet.' Pease can become the first woman to win U.S. junior and senior all-around titles in back-to-back years since Shawn Johnson in 2006 and 2007. Pease was inspired last year by watching Rivera, one of her training partners outside Dallas, make it all the way to Paris. Taylor Hancock, Rivera, the youngest U.S. Olympian across all sports in Paris, has gazed at her gold medal about once a month over the last year to wow herself all over again. She also put Olympic rings above her bed. 'My mindset is kind of like, I achieved my dreams, I achieved my goals, but I still have more (goals), so I kind of like to put that (the Olympics) in the back of my head for now,' Rivera said last month. 'Every time in the gym, I don't think that I went to the Olympics. I'm just kind of training like I've almost never been, in a way.' Training partners Jayla Hang, who has the highest all-around score of any American in 2025, and Simone Rose, who was second to Pease at a July tune-up meet, are motivated by 2024. For Hang, it's from not making the Olympic Trials after placing 16th at last year's U.S. Championships. For Rose, it's from making it to the Olympic Trials, where she placed 10th in the all-around as the second-youngest gymnast in the field. 'It really helped me see I truly belong here,' she said. The last three Olympic teams included returning gymnasts from the previous Games, including a record-tying four in 2024. But before that, the teams in 2004, 2008 and 2012 included zero returning Olympians. Skye Blakely, the 2024 U.S. Championships runner-up to Biles, is among those pushing for 2028. She made it to each of the last two Olympic Trials, but didn't compete either time due to injuries sustained preparing for the meet, including an Achilles tear last year. Blakely plans to perform on two events this week — uneven bars and balance beam — in her first elite meet in 14 months. 'Knowing that trials didn't go the way I thought it was going to at all, and having this big injury, I was truly blessed at one moment to know that I still had on my heart the goal to want to go to the Olympics,' she said.
