Olympic gold medalist Kyle Chalmers has revealed he has forked out $5000 just to compete at the ongoing Australian Swimming trials.
Chalmers, a nine-time world champion, won his 100m freestyle event, which has now booked his place in the Australian team for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Despite the positive feat, Chalmers has sounded the alarm for young swimmers, and urged them on the side of caution on their journey to the top.
‘It’s such a hard sport … you make a lot of very hard decisions and sacrifices for what I feel is very little reward,’ Chalmers told reporters.
‘I really hope our governing bodies can actually start to create change,’ he told reporters.’
The popular athlete, who is married with one child, has revealed just how difficult life is, when competing as a professional swimmer.
Kyle Chalmers (pictured) has spoken publicly about the difficulties of being a professional swimmer
Chalmers (pictured) forked out $5000 just to compete at the Australian Swimming Trials
Chalmers (pictured right of Ingeborg Vloyning) has been vocal about his disapproval of the state of swimming
‘As a 28-year-old with a young family, and a mortgage, it’s very hard to continue [as a swimmer],’ Chalmers said.
‘We fund these things ourselves; for me to come to trials cost me $5000, for me to race tonight cost me $36.
‘It’s a sport that takes a lot from you and I really hope that from the top right down there’s gonna be some change.
‘But if not hopefully I can at least speak up to make it a little bit better for the next generation coming through.
The 28-year-old has also taken aim at there being no payment for athletes who win medals at the Olympic Games,
‘I’ve won 48 international medals and I would’ve got less prize money for those medals than Hunter Armstrong, who raced clean at the Enhanced Games, he said.
‘So it’s really sad to see how uneven it is, especially when the IOC president comes out and makes pretty harsh comments through that period of time.’
Chalmers is an Australian sprint swimming great, who has amassed six Olympic medals, including one gold.
