Ariarne Titmus – Michmutters

Ariarne Titmus says media scrutiny around Kyle Chalmers had potential to impact the whole team

As the curtain closed on another stellar Commonwealth Games swimming campaign from the Australian Dolphins, one of the stars of the team has revealed how Kyle Chalmers’s unwanted media attention and mental health struggles had rippled through the squad she describes as “a family.”

“I think we all kind of feel part of it,” said Ariarne Titmus, moments after winning her fourth gold medal of the week, for the 400m Freestyle.

“Because we are all so close, we are such a close team, and I think that’s why we perform so well, because we have each others’ backs.

“I think it potentially can affect us emotionally because they’re our friends, they’re teammates. We’re like a family and we don’t like seeing people upset and put through durations.

“And we’ve come out here and done our best and done our country proud and I think the swimming does the talking. We’ve killed it this week and I hope that Australia is proud of our performance and we’ve done our absolute best for the country and we’re going to go home with some extra luggage.”

Chalmers has been the center of intense scrutiny over his personal life. Then, on Saturday night, it came to a dramatic head, when after anchoring the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay to a gold-medal victory, he faced more questioning over an “apparent” rift within the Australian swim team.

Despite going through what he described as “the most-challenging, probably 48 hours of my swimming career”, he produced an incredible swim in 100m freestyle final days later, to claim the gold medal.

He climbed onto the lane ropes and put a finger to his mouth, after winning.

Gold medalist Kyle Chalmers sent a message to the media after weeks of intense scrutiny.(AP: Kirsty Wigglesworth)

On Thursday morning (AEST), his Commonwealth Games campaign came to an end in the 4×100 medley relay, with Chalmers swimming the final leg and Australia finishing second, just 0.08 behind England.

Chalmers said he was “relieved” the week was now over.

“For me, everyday — like we say — is day one,” he said.

“So it’s all about getting yourself up and performing every time you pull the Australian cap on, especially tonight swimming in relays.

“It’s my favorite thing and the reason why I do the sport is to be a part of the relays … so, for me, it’s all about pushing everything aside, racing every time I stand up, doing my absolute best.

“And, obviously, this next week is probably going to be reflecting on it and looking at all the positives that have come. There’s so many things to be grateful for: being part of the team, it’s special.”

“And we are all so close and it’s been a very, very successful week in the pool for us and, hopefully, we’re able to celebrate a little bit tonight as a team and, obviously, we all depart tomorrow. It’s been great .”

The Dolphins head back home with 65 medals they’ve won in the pool: 25 gold, 21 silver and 19 bronze.

It’s the best gold medal haul Australia has ever produced at Commonwealth Games in swimming.

“The team has really gotten around each other. This could possibly [have] been one of the best Comm Games medal tallies from the swim team, so I think it’s unreal to be a part of and the whole swim team has done so well,” 4×100 mixed relay silver medalist Matt Temple said.

Australia leads the medal tally with 46 gold medals as the Commonwealth Games swimming program concludes at the end of day six of the competition.

Tomorrow, attention turns to track and field and team sports.

Gold: 46
Silver: 38
Bronze: 39
Total: 123

You can check out how the latest batch of medals were won in our Commonwealth Games blog, or have a look at the medal winners and the top 10 medal standings by country below:

Day 6 medal winners:

Gold:

Evan O’Hanlon, athletics, T37/38 100m
Kaylee McKeown, Chelsea Hodges, Emma McKeon and Mollie O’Callaghan, swimming, 4×100 medley relay
Ariarne Titmus, swimming, 400m freestyle
Sam Short, swimming, 1,500m freestyle

Silver:

Brandon Starc, athletics, high jump
Bradley Woodward, Zac Stubblety-Cook, Matt Temple and Kyle Chalmers, swimming, 4X100 medley relay
Mollie O’Callaghan, swimming, 50m backstroke
Benjamin Hance, swimming, S14 200m freestyle
Cheryl Lindfield and Serena Bonnell, lawn bowls, B6-B8 women’s pair
Zoe Cuthbert, cycling, cross-country mountain biking

Bronze:

Kiah Melverton, swimming, 400m freestyle
Harry Cassar, judo, -90kg
Abigail Paduch, judo, +78kg
Liam Park, judo, +100kg
Kaylee McKeown, swimming, backstroke
Jack Ireland, swimming, S14 200m freestyle
Charisma Amoe Tarrant, weightlifting, 87kg+

Birmingham 2022 medal tally:

POSITION	TEAM	gold	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
1	Australia	46	38	39	123
two	England	38	37	28	103
3	Canada	16	twenty	twenty-one	57
4	new zealand	16	10	10	36
5	Scotland	7	8	17	32
6	south africa	6	7	7	twenty
7	India	5	6	7	18
8	wales	4	4	9	17
9	Malaysian	3	two	3	8
10	Nigeria	3	1	4	8

posted 1 hour agoWed 3 Aug 2022 at 10:52pm, updated 1 hour agoWed 3 Aug 2022 at 10:57pm

Key points:

Day 6 medal winners:

Gold:

Silver:

Bronze:

Birmingham 2022 medal tally:

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