Winning is a powerful tonic. The fissures of many sports teams have been healed by victory; frustration, fatigue and past failures, all soothed by the balm of success. When Kyle Chalmers stormed to the 100m freestyle gold medal at the Commonwealth Games on Monday night, his triumph offered both relief and vindication. As he put a finger to his lips in a premeditated gesture, it was clear that Chalmers wanted to silence his critics.
If only it were that simple. Chalmers’ gold medal, his first individual success in the frenetic 100m freestyle since becoming Olympic champion as an unheralded teenager in 2016, provides a powerful response after the media firestorm of recent days. On Instagram after the win, she posted: “A million things I could say but this photo sums them all up and says it perfectly.” But the fallout from this saga may be just beginning.
The clouds began to form in May, when Chalmers beat Cody Simpson – the swimmer-turned-pop-star-turned-again swimmer, who is now dating Emma McKeon after splitting from Chalmers last year – in the 100m butterfly at the national championships, a selection event for the world. championships and Commonwealth Games. Chalmers had considered forfeiting the world titles, which would have allowed Simpson to take his place, but ultimately opted to take part in both international meets.
Chalmers qualified fastest, so that was his prerogative. But some sections of the media, led by headlines from News Corp, fabricated a “love triangle” and suggested that Chalmers was the villain. Chalmers was ready to “destroy” Simpson’s dreams; his decision was “brutal”. The coverage backfired on Chalmers, who went ashore and issued a statement denouncing the “massive toll” the furore was taking.
In Birmingham, it went from bad to worse. The degree of celebration between Chalmers and McKeon was scrutinized after the pair won gold together in the medley relay, with suggestions that the freestyle specialist had dumped her ex. When Chalmers lashed out, criticizing the media for focusing on his personal life rather than his swimming, sections of the press doubled down.
Seen from afar, the saga has been absurd. There is no public interest in the invasive coverage of these swimmers’ private lives.
And it’s having all-too-real consequences. Chalmers has spoken openly about the drama’s impact on his mental health, saying his well-being was “rock bottom”. At one point, he denounced the ongoing controversy as the “toughest 12 hours of my sports career.” He has talked about his crying mother on FaceTime from the other side of the world; her father broke down on the radio, telling Mix 102.3 “it’s a form of bullying and harassment, these people get away with it, they destroy people’s lives.”
At its best, sports media can bring the joy of elite competition to the community and shine a light on corruption and abuse within powerful institutions. Sports reporters should never be afraid to ask tough questions. If this saga involved Chalmers not liking questions about poor performances, for example, or misconduct on the field (an almost unheard of thing in Swimming Australia), there would be no sympathy. These are questions journalists have a right to ask, even if the recipient doesn’t like hearing them. But that’s not it.
There has been an element of incitement in the way Chalmers has been questioned about his personal life, regardless of the impact it has on his mental health. It may be an attractive narrative to paint the male, tattooed swimmer as the villain, and it certainly gets a lot of traffic online, but it’s actively undermining the well-being of at least one athlete.
The continued build-up even after Chalmers went public with his mental health issues is perhaps the most alarming aspect of all of this. It suggests a worrying regression in the positive response to athletes opening up about their challenges in recent years (like gymnast Simone Biles in Tokyo). The media must do better; with great power comes great responsibility.
No one knows how this ends. Chalmers has threatened to leave the sport entirely, which would be a major loss for swimming; remains one of the best in Australia. In the coming days, once the swim is over and attention turns to other events in Birmingham, the media will move on. But there is a possibility that some real remains will be left behind.