In short:
Athletes in Port Lincoln look to home-grown star Kyle Chalmers’ Olympic success for inspiration.
Their coach say regional swimmers face additional barriers to success due to a lack of resources and long travel times to competitions.
What’s next?
Locals will be watching closely as Kyle Chalmers competes in his third Olympics at the Paris games in July.
At the crack of dawn nearly every morning, West Coast Swimming Club’s gold squad members swim 200 laps of their local pool, dreaming of becoming the next Kyle Chalmers.
Port Lincoln’s own multi-Olympic gold medal swimmer is part of a strong Australian swim team that is expected to dominate the Paris Games at the end of July.
The 26-year-old began his swimming journey at the West Coast Swimming Club before moving to Adelaide as a teenager to pursue a competitive swimming career.
Gold squad member Lacey Cullen said Chalmers was a “pretty cool dude”.
“He came and gave us a big pep talk before my first Sapsava [state school] event, which was really nice of him,” Cullen said.
Challenges start with undersized pool
Australian Sports Commission data showed areas outside of capital cities had similar rates of participation for swimming at least once a week for children up to 14.
But gold squad coach Nicol Wright said regional swimmers were disadvantaged compared to kids in the city.
“We would love a 50-metre pool,” she said.
“Travelling to Adelaide for competitions — we are just as far away as Melbourne, a seven-hour drive or an expensive flight.
“Up against city kids that swim and race our opportunities are limited. It’s very expensive to swim.”
Leaving town
One of the gold squad’s best performers was 13-year-old Tyrell Nemeth-Smith, who recently broke four state records for his age group at a swim meet.
He moved to Adelaide this year to give himself the best chance of making it to the very top.
“I didn’t have the facilities and coaching in Port Lincoln that I needed to get to the next level of sport, I could only train five times in Port Lincoln, now I’m training nine,” Tyrell said.
“Sometimes we have music playing out of a bug speaker in the morning but most of the time it’s just head down swim, and get it done.”
Tyrell, who is hoping to be ranked top 10 in Australia this year after a national competition this month, said he drew inspiration from Chalmers’ story.
“I come from Port Lincoln and so did he, and we both train at Marion,” he said.
“I was aiming for a lot of his records.”
Brisbane Games in sight
Wright said her squad was looking ahead to selection at the Brisbane Olympics in 2032 as a long-term goal.
“Your swimmers that are starting now are the ones that are going to be vying to make the Olympics in eight years’ time, it’s a very exciting time for swimming,” she said.
She said while there was a “future Kyle Chalmers in anyone”, it all came down to commitment and love for the sport.
“When you are swimming three to four kilometres a day, your favourite friend is the blue line on the bottom of the pool, so you have to enjoy that,” she said.
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