It should come as little surprise that Kyle Chalmers took a little while to digest what he achieved at the Rio Olympic Games. Watch his poolside interview moments after he climbed out of the water – it makes for instructive viewing.
"I'm only 18," Chalmers said, more to himself than anyone listening. It wasn't a boast by any means; he was simply thinking out loud and attempting to understand what the hell had just gone down. Until he made the 100m freestyle final, he wasn't really in the conversation. Less than a minute later, he was the Olympic champion.
Not all of that would really sink in over the coming weeks and months. Years, even. Part of him took Olympic success for granted, not because he's egotistical but because it all arrived so quickly. At his first Games, he had achieved what others spend a career striving towards.
He wrestled not only with his overnight success but his very future in the sport. An Adelaide boy from an AFL family, Chalmers is a brute of an athlete who could have pursued the code if not for his talents in the water.
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