Australian Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers has revealed how a number of AFL clubs approached him last year in hope of luring the elite swimmer to football.
Speaking to Fox Sports'ย Gadiel Notelovitz, Chalmers revealed Geelong had contacted him ahead of their Grand Final push, with the 22-year-old holding talks with the club.
Chalmers, a Port Adelaide ambassador and the son of former player, Brett, notified the South Australian club of the Cats' interest and soon had growing interest from the Power to take their rookie contract offer.
With a passionate past connection with football overtaken by his stardom in an Olympic pool, the reigning 100m freestyle champion hasn't ruled out a move to football after the upcoming Tokyo Games.
Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers is best known for his success in Rio, but the boy from Port Lincoln has a new-found love outside the pool โ he spends up to five hours a day tending to his extraordinary collection of lizards and snakes. @mark_soda #7News pic.twitter.com/zz6KcliV5L
— 7NEWS Adelaide (@7NewsAdelaide) October 2, 2018
โIโd have to get this Olympics out the way and then commit myself to being an AFL footballer, and I just donโt know whether Iโm ready to give up on swimming at this point in my life," Chalmers toldย Fox Sports.ย
โI had a couple of AFL clubs reach out to me, did the Zoom calls, which was awesome.
โIt was kind of like something Iโd dreamt about as a kid, that recruiting process, chatting to the list managers and whatnot, which was really cool.
โIโve got a mate, who is a singer, Scott Darlow, who messaged me and kind of said, โOh, the Cats want to speak to you.โ And I thought, โYouโre joking, whatโs going on here?โ
โAnd then [I] sat down on a Zoom call and chatted away.
โ[Port] were [interested], and have always been, keen on having me as a Category B rookie on the list.
โI think, for me, the door will never be closed.โ
Chalmers also revealed toย Fox Sportsย that he held conversations with former Adelaide and Greater Western Sydney ruckman Sam Jacobs during a kick of the footy to express his concerns of potentially sitting on an AFL list unwanted at senior level.
โโDo you really want to be a guy who sits on a list and gives up his swimming career?โ It was probably the thought that I needed," Chalmers said.
Standing at 193cm and 93kgs, Chalmers' frame is sure to be one that would intimidate many AFL players on a footy field.
Should he opt to chase his dream of pulling off the swimming cap to chase the Sherrin, it would sure to be a sensational story of sport-hopping.
