Chalmers keen on footy even after Olympic swimming glory

On the back of his gold medal at the Rio Olympics, swimmer Kyle Chalmers has hinted at a return to the footy paddock.

The 18-year-old schoolboy won the 100m freestyle at in Rio, but said today that his passion for AFL still ran deep.

When offered the chance to play for his school's footy team on the weekend, he said he would have loved to, but didn't think he would have recovered from a bout of pneumonia by then.

Asked whether swimming was his passion, the 18-year-old responded somewhat sheepishly by saying: "I guess I have to say yes.

"It's obviously a big part of my life now, and it has been since stopping footy last year, it's probably grown and will probably continue to grow."

His last game of football was last year while playing for his school, Immanuel College, where he cracked a bone in his wrist about five minutes into the game.

That was when he said he got a call from Swimming Austrlia telling him that if he wanted to swim he would have to hang up the footy boots.

But he said he woudl dearly like to lace up his boots again.

"Footy's still something that's pretty big in my life, and I'd love to be playing footy still," he said.

"But I chose swimming and I think I made the right decision."