After winning nine Olympic medals, Australian swimmer Kyle Chalmers has turned his focus to the 2028 Los Angeles Games. “I’d love a gold medal in a relay,” said the 27-year-old, determined to avenge Australia’s loss to the Americans at the 2024 Paris Olympics. That hunger has long driven Chalmers through every setback, from surgeries to splits decided by hundredths of a second, and it’s what has kept him chasing new goals even after nearly a decade at the top. Yet, now he appears ready to give up his Olympic spot for one major reason.
Following his victory in the 2026 Australian Open, where he won the men’s 100m freestyle title, Chalmers revealed his plans for LA 28:
“To go to a fourth Olympics and get a gold medal in that relay would be, for me, the ultimate success at this point,” he said.
Kyle Chalmers is a World Championships gold medallist, including the 2023 100m freestyle champion. He has won several medals at that level and earned three Commonwealth Games golds in 2022. He has also been part of short-course relay world records. While he has Olympic gold in the 100m freestyle, a gold in the freestyle relay has so far eluded him. Despite this, he has decided to give up his anchor spot in the relay for Cam McEvoy.
“If it was to work out, I feel like we would have a very good chance of beating America at their home Olympics, which on night one… would set the team up for an amazing week in the pool,” Chalmers added.
After all, most recently, McEvoy broke a new official world record in the men’s 50m freestyle at the China Open in Shenzhen with a time of 20.88s. And in doing so, he broke the world record of 20.91, which had long been held by Brazilian Cesar Cielo in 2009. This swim saw McEvoy become the fastest man in long-course 50m freestyle.
Olympic Champion Kyle Chalmers reveals that he’s spoken to fellow Australian Olympian Cam McEvoy—and he would be willing to give up his trademark anchor spot on the 4×100 Free Relay to lure McEvoy back onto the team and defeat the Americans on home soil at the LA Olympics.#LA28 pic.twitter.com/KRVnpz5BAJ
— Swim Updates (@swimupdates) April 8, 2026
Interestingly, McEvoy has not swum in relays for the last five years. Earlier in his career, he helped Australia win bronze medals in the 4×100m freestyle relay at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. He skipped relays at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where Australia claimed silver.
Chalmers has not yet secured an official spot for the 2028 Olympics. He chose to prioritize the team by yielding his anchor position. This move aims to secure the elusive relay gold and defeat the Americans on their home turf. The battle forms one chapter in a larger rivalry between the two nations that began in 2000.
A relay rivalry that shaped the Olympic swimming
The United States and Australia are among the most successful swimming nations in Olympic history, and this has created a strong rivalry between them, especially in relay events. It all started at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Before the race, American sprinter Gary Hall Jr. confidently said the U.S. men’s 4×100m freestyle relay team would “smash them like guitars,” pointing to nearly 40 years of American dominance in the event. But Australia stunned the world by winning the race, defeating the Americans.
This rivalry was once again intensified in the 2024 Paris Olympics. On the first day of swimming finals, the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay race took place. The U.S. team (Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano, Hunter Armstrong, and Caeleb Dressel) won the gold in 3:09.28, which became the first gold of the Games for the country. Australia won silver, with 3:10.35 to take silver, and Italy was a close third at 3:10.70. China finished fourth.
On the other hand, Australia won gold in the men’s 4×100m freestyle relay at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. They clocked 3:08.97, the fastest time ever at a world championships and the fastest in Australian history. Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor, Max Giuliani, and Kyle Chalmers led the team to a clear victory over Italy in silver and the United States in bronze.
This win sent a clear message. Australia remains a strong competitor in relay races ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The rivalry with the U.S. continues.
