By Simon Smale, ABC
Kyle Chalmers following the men's 100m freestyle final during the Australian Swimming Trials at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre on 13 June, 2024. Photo: AFP
- Swimming Australia says it has asked Meta to take down social media posts featuring fake quotes attributed to Kyle Chalmers.
- The request comes weeks after a similar incident involving Mollie O'Callaghan.
- A Meta spokesperson told ABC Sport it "will remove any content that violates our policies".
Swimming Australia has been forced to take action after false quotes attributed to Kyle Chalmers appeared on Meta social media platforms.
Chalmers is the second Australian swimmer to have quotes attributed to them - quotes were also attributed to Mollie O'Callaghan on 12 October.
The comments relate to LGBT and transgender athletes, including American Lia Thomas.
Swimming Australia has requested that the quotes be removed by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
"There are currently fabricated quotes attributed to Dolphin Kyle Chalmers appearing on social media," a Swimming Australia statement said.
"Kyle Chalmers has never been interviewed by Swim Hub or Swim Aquatics and additionally has never provided commentary on LGBT or transgender athletes.
"Meta was first advised of the fake news involving Australian swimmers two weeks ago.
"Chalmers and Swimming Australia have again requested the posts to be taken down."
The posts suggested that Australia would boycott the Olympics in Los Angeles if Thomas was allowed to compete and said O'Callaghan had the backing of the Australian Sports Commission.
"The Australian Sports Commission confirms it has never made any such statement," a spokesperson told AAP FactCheck earlier this week.
Swimming Australia noted that O'Callaghan has "at no stage" provided commentary or been interviewed about transgender athletes.
The posts relating to Chalmers appear to have been deleted as of Thursday morning (AEDT), but the posts relating to O'Callaghan's false quotes are still on the site.
A Meta spokesperson told ABC Sport: "We are reviewing the content shared with us and will remove any content that violates our policies."
In 2022, Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, having won the women's 500-yard freestyle while competing for the University of Pennsylvania.
Soon after that World Aquatics banned transgender swimmers from competing in women's races, with guidelines saying no athlete who has undergone "any part of male puberty" can compete in the female category.
Thomas lost a legal battle against the ban in 2024.
In February this year US President Donald Trump banned transgender women from competing in women's sport after signing an executive order.
Days afterwards the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights announced an investigation into the University of Pennsylvania for violating Title IX by "denying women an equal opportunity to participate in sports".
Thomas was named specifically.
The University of Pennsylvania added a footnote to Thomas's records and penned an apology to former students.
- ABC
