National Basketball Association

How a Kevin Durant obsession inspired one Australian to win Olympic gold

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:12 p.m. ET

Andrew Lynch

The Australian men's national basketball team might be the biggest obstacle in Team USA's road to a gold medal at Rio, but one Australian Olympic athlete is using Kevin Durant as inspiration.

Kyle Chalmers won the 100m freestyle final on Wednesday, Australia's first gold in that event in almost 50 years. And after the race, Chalmers explained how KD gets him pumped up for every one of his races.

Via the Sydney Morning Herald:

"I watch Kevin Durant's MVP speech before every single race and I watch a highlights video of him," Chalmers said. "Our team manager actually grabbed him last night and got a video of him saying he watched me swim and good luck which was really exciting.

"They actually had to show it to me this morning because they knew I wouldn't be able to focus if I saw it tonight before my race - I'm a big fan."

It has to be pretty cool to have one of your heroes wish you well — once you look past the fact that KD called him, "Karl" in the video below:

Even then, Durant almost managed to throw Chalmers off of his game just by existing before one of the 100m semifinals:

"Last night I was walking over to my semi-finals and Kevin Durant walked in front of me," Chalmers gushed.

"To be honest with you I almost vomited. My jaw dropped. I was that excited and nervous.

"It was just amazing for me."

Amazing, indeed, although we're guessing Chalmers' basketball-playing countrymen won't be joining the gold medalist in his daily inspirational listening.