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Kyle Chalmers’ father has slammed Australian swimming, our Cody Simpson obsession and the focus on his son’s personal life as the sprint king dominates the Commonwealth Games headlines.
Brett Chalmers firmly defended his son and called out anyone who wants to hear more about the personal lives of athletes or Simpson’s return to the pool at the expense of other members of the Australian team.
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Brett’s spree comes after Chalmers criticized the media for focusing on “clickbait” rather than the Dolphins’ impressive results, saying he wasn’t sure he wanted to stay in the sport if it meant doing that kind of thing attention
The 24-year-old – who already has three gold medals in Birmingham after his 100m freestyle victory on Tuesday morning – has been forced to repeatedly deny there is any tension between himself, Simpson and Emma McKeon, who are now dating, after as she was romantically linked to Chalmers last year.
After his golden swim in his favorite event on Tuesday, Chalmers put his finger to his lips to silence critics, revealing he had planned the event to send a “powerful message”, reiterating his desire not to let the media “win “.
Speaking of The Ali Clarke Breakfast Show on Mix 102.3, an emotional Brett broke down as he blasted the treatment his son has endured.
“If it was in the workplace and you’re being asked the same question over and over and over again, that’s a form of bullying and harassment,” he said. “It is not tolerated and not accepted.
“You’d be hauled into the manager’s office pretty quickly, and if you didn’t stop, you’d probably lose your job when these people get away with it.”
“They are destroying people’s lives and livelihoods. It’s quite difficult.”
Chalmers said Swimming Australia should have done more to “protect” Chalmers and the other athletes involved as he complained the spotlight was firmly on Simpson, whose incredible return to swimming after a successful music career provided the most – the attractive plot in sports.
“They (Swimming Australia) have failed big and that allows the media to dictate the issues and keep talking about it,” Brett said. “They failed to take care of their athletes.
“The other two athletes who ran the relay (with Chalmers) sat there and were not asked any other questions at all. Tell me what Swimming Australia is doing about it?
“Yes, they have a high profile person who has joined the sports arena. Fantastic, that’s great. But hey, as we know, there’s more than one person on the team.
“There’s a rock star who’s joined, but there’s a guy (Zach Stubblety-Cook) who swims breaststroke, who’s a world championship gold medalist, an Olympic gold medalist, a world record holder and now a Commonwealth Games gold medallist. What did they say about him? Why isn’t he the poster boy?
“They don’t show that. They’ve jumped on the bandwagon of someone who swam as a junior, (was) gone, came back. It’s fantastic that he made the Australian team, hats off to him. But let’s focus on everyone else as well. There are more than one or two people on the team.”
Brett also responded to former Australian swimmer-turned-TV presenter Johanna Griggs, who said on Monday that Chalmers was “fueling” the very headlines he was offended by by repeatedly bringing up the McKeon-Simpson dynamic.
Griggs said Chalmers was giving the story more oxygen by constantly bringing it up in interviews and on social media, but Brett refuted that claim.
“Kyle isn’t the one bringing it up. That’s the hardest thing,” he told Abby Clarke.
“Everywhere you look, it’s all in the media. It’s people like her (Griggs) who bring it up all the time.
“The whole ‘Kyle gets back at Cody.’ No, he’s not. Kyle is his own man, he’s an athlete who has spent three quarters of his life training to swim to get where he is.
“Let’s go to bed, get over it and celebrate the successes of our athletes.”
“Let’s just stop with all the crap they talk all the time with their personal lives. This is their private life. Are we asking Johanna Griggs about her personal life? no do we care about that? No. So why are we making a big deal about him being an athlete?”
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