Australian sprint superstar Kyle Chalmers will skip out on Pan Pacs in favor of the Commonwealth Games, The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting.
The Herald’s chief sports writer Tom Decent has said that Swimming Australia benefactor and mining magnate Gina Rinehart has laid down significant cash bonuses for Australian swimmers who attend the Commonwealth Games.
Specifically, she will pay $20,000 if they win gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze. In addition, members of a gold medal relay team will receive $5,000 and any World Records will earn a cool $30,000 bonus.
Decent paints this offer as a publicity salvation for Seven Network, Australia’s rights holder for the Commonwealth Games. The 2026 Games have been fraught from the get, especially in Australia, where the state of Victoria awarded the initial right to host the Games. Victoria would eventually cancel its hosting duties, leaving Glasgow, Scotland to host a scaled-back version of the event (sans divers).
Australia is the dominant swimming country at the Commonwealth Games, having won 25 out of the 52 gold medals and 65 out of the 156 total medals on offer in 2022. While England has not announced most of its roster, Canada, the 3rd place nation in the 2022 medals table, has already confirmed a very small roster without superstar Summer McIntosh.
Many Commonwealth nations, including Canada and Australia, have the option of racing at the Pan Pacific Championships. The Commonwealth Games closes just 13 days before the Pan Pacs start in Los Angeles, though, so the double is a tough one given the travel involved.
While some popular athletes, including track sprinter Gout Gout, have chosen to skip the Commonwealth Games, one swimming star Kyle Chalmers has chosen to attend – and bypass the Pan Pac Championships.
Decent reports that this is because he is due back for parenting duties. His partner Ingeborg Loyning, also an elite swimmer, is returning to competitive swimming.
Australia will televise the Australian Trials in June, which is the selection event for both meets.
Top athletes in any sport will compete where their sponsors tell them to.
That’s how they make their living
Not that difficult to understand.
Is south africa sending any team to the pan pacs this year or just doing the commies?
Oh please. These professional athletes are complaining that they have to swim too many meets. Tell that to other athletes.
So I’ll try this again.
Glad to see Meg is entered. I think we haven’t seen her since that world-leading 52.56 in December.
But no Kaylee??
Kaylee seems to bounce back from adversity quite well but I’m very concerned… she was publicly advertised as being entered only a few days ago
Maybe it’s a mistake and she’ll be included in the final entries
mcevoy is doing the stockholm open iirc. he said he wants to do a lot of international racing inseason this year
Australian Open entries out.
Missing:
Kaylee McKeown – 😰😰😰
Harry Turner – ?
Mollie O’Callaghan – only relays
Henry Allan – probably only doing age champs
Iona Anderson – ?
Abbey Connor – ?
Jaclyn Barclay – ?
Cam McEvoy – prioritising the Chinese meet I guess
Jamie Perkins – only relays
Josh Yong – ?
Some lineups:
ARMBRUSTER, BEN – 50 FR, 50/100 FL
CARTWRIGHT, JACK – 50/100/200 FR
CASEY, HANNAH – 50/100/200 FR, 50 FL
CHALMERS, KYLE – 50/100 FR, 50 FL
COOPER, ISAAC – 50 FR, 50 BK, 50/100 FL
COLEMAN, JESSE – 100 FR, 50/100 FL
DA SILVA, MARCUS – 50/100/200… Read more »
Obviously, since all the money gets funneled to the USA Swimming Board of Directors.
Gout Gout probably isn’t an ideal example because he is prioritizing a world title over Commonwealth Games. There has been a recent push in track and field for the elite juniors to contest those championship events instead of bypassing them to compete in regular events alongside seniors. In this instance it works perfectly because Gout Gout won’t miss any Diamond League meets while competing in World U20 Track and Field.
The Diamond League is taking a 3+ week break around Commonwealth Games but it also captures World U20 within the same window.
Gout Gout settled for 200 silver at World U20 when he was 16. This is his final opportunity.
Pan Pacs wouldn’t hold the same name… Read more »
I suspect Gout Gout might have made a different decision if Commonwealth sprints weren’t so strong. Ambitious frome Myers too, but with the Scots at home and Kenyans coming along gold will be extremely hard to capture.
World U20s holds very little name recognition or value in Australia. Comm Games is a much bigger deal and Gout Gout is at the point in his career where he should be focusing on senior competition. He has very little to gain experience wise from going to World U20s again.
Nah, Gina is actually such a legend. Utter respect for her.
Agreed. Gina is so important in the landscape of Swimming in Australia. Generosity beyond belief 🙏🙌.
She’s worth billions, which already makes you a bad person by default, but that “generosity” is equivalent to me donating a sandwich to a swim team.
but it is a sandwich she doesnt need to donate. She could just keep it all. Credit to her.
I know for a fact if I had a billion sandwiches, I’m keeping them all. Especially if they are Italian Sandwiches or Reubens.
This is such an insane take to me.
“She lost some change in the couch cushions, an absolute angel!!”
which other billionaires are giving significant money to swimmers. If it was as easy as you seem to make ot out all swimmers would be making a fortune.
I see the criticism of her generosity being generated by Non-Australians, could there be a correlation and bias coming into people’s comments cause they know and understand her generosity advances the competitiveness of Australian Swimmers and this is against their own patriotism for their own country’s athletes?
I also suggest what isn’t generously donated, just goes to a federal taxation system and completely wasted and squandered in a wash of backroom shady deals anyway, so why not donate it to a cause you enjoy if you are in a position to do so.
She is a saint for Australian swimming athletes.
What? No. All billionaires are bad, lol
The absolute brainrot it takes to think, “you should just be able to give money to things you like, any collective good is ‘squandered'” is some real fashy stuff.
More downvotes! Is Gina the Australian Pam Bondi?
And you get downvotes!
I guess Gina is evil?
Gina is very good for Australian swimming but she is horrible for the Australian people. Really horrible.
Why. Explain
Do you actually know what you are talking about? Or just throwing out claims baseless claims cuz she’s rich? Gina has employed thousands and thousands of people over the years with very high paying jobs. I’m sure those Aussies appreciated her. I love the fact she is keeping lots of big stations in Aussie hands as well.
I don’t feel like going buckwild on economics here on the ole swimswams, but billionaires take much, much more from a country than they ever “give back” in terms of employment.
She’s no legend, just a nasty piece of work!! Funding the right wingers One Nation!! The single good thing is that she gives a minimal amount of her billions to swimming in Australia.
I really don’t know anything about Gina, but seriously, Dude, wtf is this?
This is a portrait of Gina Reinhart that she has asked to not be displayed in the National Gallery: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/melbourne-breakfast/gina-rinehart-unhappy-with-portrait/103854648
Her eyes and neck look much nicer in the painting.
That was the first time I saw a side by side and that was my thoughts as well lol