Australian swimming champion Kyle Chalmers will have a secret weapon by his side at the Paris Olympics – his new fiance Ingeborg Løyning.
The world champion Aussie swimmer had been through a rollercoaster of emotions at the recent Commonwealth Games as claims of a “love triangle” emerged between himself and new couple Emma McKeon and Cody Simpson.
The ordeal led to Chalmers seriously considering quitting the sport he loves, but he returns in Paris with a vengeance with his Norwegian swimmer fiance Løyning.
While the swimmers could not be part of the opening ceremony along the River Seine in Paris overnight [AEST], he has shared images from inside the Australian athlete’s village, including one of him all loved up with Løyning.
‘My Norwegian princess,’ he captioned the image with a heart emoji.
Australian swimming champion Kyle Chalmers and fiance Ingeborg Løyning in Paris
Chalmers and Løyning announced their engagement in June this year, putting an end to the ‘love triangle’ rumours once and for all.
The Australian swimmer shared the news to Instagram on Thursday night alongside a carousel of images with his stunning ladylove.
In the first image, Kyle, 25, is seen beaming as his Norwegian love, 23, tenderly rests her hand on his muscular chest, giving fans a glimpse at her stunning engagement ring.
A second frame shows the couple’s hands interlocked as they both show off their tattoos and unbreakable bond.
Ingeborg ensured the star of the third image is her blinding ring, as she extends her hand to the camera.
Kyle Chalmers and girlfriend Ingeborg Løyning are engaged. The Australian swimmer shared the news to Instagram on Thursday night alongside a carousel of images with his stunning ladylove. Both pictured
In the first image, Kyle is seen beaming as his Norwegian love tenderly rests her hand on his muscular chest, giving fans a glimpse at her stunning engagement ring
A second frame shows the couple’s hands interlocked as they both show off their tattoos and unbreakable bond
Ingeborg ensured the star of the third image is her blinding ring, as she extends her hand to the camera
The couple captioned the images simply by noting the date of the announcement, ‘19.06.24’, alongside an infinity symbol.
Friends and fans rushed to congratulate the newly engaged couple.
‘AHHHHHH! So excited for you both! Love you guys! Can’t wait to celebrate with you soon!’ one fan gushed.
‘King and Queen,’ wrote AFL star Clayton Oliver.
Olympic legend Grant Hackett opted to keep things simple, adding a ‘Congratulations.
‘I would say simp, but this is awesome. Congrats man,’ added fellow swimmer Sam Short alongside two red love heart emojis.
‘Congrats brother,’ commented athlete Stewart McSweyn.
Kyle was first linked to Ingeborg in June, 2023.
In November of the same year, they all but confirmed their romance after they each uploaded a photo collage gallery to Instagram containing a very cosy image.
The photo showed Chalmers and Løyning looking like a couple as they posed arm-in-arm while taking a dog for a walk.
Another image showed Løyning and Chalmers enjoying an outdoor meal together.
In November of the same year, they all but confirmed their romance after they each uploaded a photo collage gallery to Instagram. The couple are pictured cuddling (top left) and a photo of them dining together (bottom right)
The couple’s good news comes after Chalmers revealed he almost quit swimming amid the infamous love triangle saga that rocked the Australian team in 2022.
Chalmers was in the eye of a media storm over his involvement in a love triangle with ex-girlfriend Emma McKeon and fellow swimmer Cody Simpson.
Chalmers and McKeon briefly dated in 2021.
McKeon and Simpson later went ‘Instagram official’ with their relationship in July 2022, three months after they began dating in secret.
Chalmers’ world championships backflip – in which he U-turned on his decision to skip Budapest, thereby denying Simpson a place on the team – resulted in allegations that his call was not purely based on swimming.
The story did not go away during the Commonwealth Games, where all three swimmers competed for Australia in Birmingham, and Chalmers says he spent the hours leading up to his 100m freestyle race crying in his hotel room.
‘It is a sport that I love.’ he told A Current Affair. ‘But I was in a very, very dark place.
Chalmers made headlines when he was caught in a ‘love triangle’ with his ex Emma McKeon (left) and singer Cody Simpson (right).
‘Reflecting on that. I was asking myself “why am I actually doing this? Why?”
‘Especially last year, I think rock bottom, was probably, like, alone at the Commonwealth Games. Just being in my room completely preparing for the final, I was crying in my room.
‘We’re in a university so a pretty old sort of building. “What am I, what am I here for?”‘
Chalmers previously revealed that he had written a retirement statement in the midst of his struggles, and wanted to play local footy in Australia instead.
The story did not go away during the Commonwealth Games, where all three swimmers competed for Australia in Birmingham, and Chalmers (pictured) says he spent the hours leading up to his 100m freestyle race crying in his hotel room
‘It was very, very stressful,’ Chalmers told the Soda Room podcast. ‘I was going to say, now I’m done – I’m going to stay in Port Lincoln now and play country footy.’
He added that any suggestion that he kept Simpson out of the team for Budapest was ‘absolute c**p’ but it wasn’t until the Commonwealth Games where he reached an all-time low.
‘We just broke the Commonwealth record and we won gold … and they’ve just teed off,’ he says. ‘Not one question about swimming … It was all complete nonsense, this so-called feud. There was no feud whatsoever.’
Chalmers will compete in the men’s 100m freestyle at the Paris 2024 Olympics, having previously won gold in this event at Rio 2016.
Despite a shoulder injury, he claimed silver in Tokyo 2020, narrowly missing out on gold to Caeleb Dressel, and now faces strong competition from international swimmers like Maxime Grousset, David Popovici, and Pan Zhanle.
Chalmers also contributes to Australia’s relay teams, holding world records in the mixed 4x100m freestyle, men’s 100m freestyle short course, and men’s 4x100m medley relay short course.