Kyle Chalmers speaks out in awful revelation about family after drama at Paris Olympics

Kyle Chalmers has revealed he and his family have been brutally targeted with hate messages online after the Aussie found himself at the centre of an Olympic Games storm. Chinese rival Pan Zhanle smashed his own world record by 0.40 seconds to claim 100m freestyle gold in Paris ahead of Chalmers who won silver.

But instead of basking in the glory of his monumental feat, Pan took aim at several of his rivals, including Chalmers, telling Chinese media that he'd been disrespected on several occasions. "After we finished the 4x100m freestyle relay on the first day, I greeted Chalmers but he completely ignored me," Pan told Chinese media. "This also included the US team's (Jack) Alexy. When we trained, our coach was on the deck, and someone did a flip-turn and splashed water directly on the coach. This behaviour seemed a bit disrespectful to us. But we beat all of them and broke the world record in such a difficult pool."

Pan's 100m freestyle victory was also somewhat overshadowed by a previous doping controversy involving 23 Chinese swimmers. However, Chalmers has consistently defended Pan saying he trusts he wouldn't cheat.

Chalmers has only spoken respectfully about his rival and therefore says he cannot understand why Pan accused him of being disrespectful by ignoring the Chinese swimmer. "I find it a bit weird, I gave him a fist pump before the relays," Chalmers said earlier this month.

"And then my focus went to my teammates and my own racing. We had a laugh together at warm down last night, but no issues from my end." However, Chalmers' respect for the teenage swim sensation has seemingly been missed by Chinese swim fans, who have made him public enemy No.1.

Kyle Chalmers and his family targeted by social media trolls

Since the final, the Aussie swimmer has been targeted by a wave of social media attacks. A video of Pan's swipe at Chalmers went viral throughout China, where the swimmer has been celebrated as a national hero in the face of what many critics perceive to be a foreign bias against the Chinese swimmers. “Chalmers ignored Pan Zhanle’s greetings” was reportedly among one of the many trending topics on Weibo - a platform that boasts some 605 million users.

And Chalmers says the trolling has got to an unbearable point, with he and his loved ones receiving "thousands and thousands of messages and hate comments". "I spoke in the marshalling room with him (Pan Zhanle), after the race went straight over in the pool, shook his hand, on the podium shook hands," Chalmers told 60 Minutes in an interview recorded during the Games that aired on Wednesday night.

"And then it wasn't until after that had all happened that I found out about what was said in the media, which I, yeah, just find really weird. And then last night he came and found me and we exchanged racing caps, which was cool, so From my point of view there's no animosity whatsoever. So I did find that very weird. It has definitely been challenging."

But despite the Aussie being respectful of his rival, it hasn't stopped him and his family from being attacked, with the swimmer saying the ferocity and sheer magnitude of threats has left them fearing for their safety. "The thousands and thousands of messages and hate comments that I've received since then has been extremely challenging, and I think takes away from my special moment and makes me feel unhappy," Chalmers said.

"But also having those messages go onto other people's profiles that I love so desperately and them getting dragged into it, it's really hard, it's probably changed my Olympics experience a lot."

Kyle Chalmers says he trusts Pan Zhanle wouldn't cheat

Former Olympian turned Australian swim coach Brett Hawke questioned the legitimacy of Pan's world record swim following the race. And despite the torment online, Chalmers has maintained that he trusts Pan despite admitting he could never swim the time his Chinese rival did in the final.

"I know that in my heart of hearts, I can't swim that fast," he told 60 Minutes. "Like I know that I can't. I train so hard and I'd love to swim that fast but I know that it wasn't possible for me to win that gold medal."

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"They have to be clean to be here," he said. "I get drug tested all the time and I do all the right things. So I have to trust that my competitors are doing all the right things, and he's never tested positive so I trust that he's doing the right things and that he's a superhuman," Chalmers said.

"Like I've never been beaten by a body length before in my entire career. And that last 15 metres, breathing and seeing his feet, I was like, "I've had the worst race of my life", like, 'All I can see is this guy's feet, I'm coming dead last'. But he produced something that we've never seen, so yeah, I have to trust it."