WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Australian swimmer Kyle Chalmers says he will withdraw from the Australian swim team if tickets are sold to LGBT athletes.
OUR VERDICT
False. The quote has been fabricated.
AAP FACTCHECK - Kyle Chalmers has become the latest Australian swimmer to be targeted by false claims about his views on LGBTQI athletes, particularly US transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
None of the quotes attributed to the 27-year-old on social media are real, just like those falsely attributed to his teammate Mollie O'Callaghan.
The fabricated quotes spreading across Facebook claim Chalmers announced he will withdraw from the Australian team if "tickets are sold to LGBT athletes".
Other posts include supposed attacks on Thomas and comments about "woke culture".
"I will never swim with Lia Thomas," one caption reads.
"This is an insult to the sport."
"WE DON'T PLAY TO CELEBRATE THEIR STUPID PRIDE," he is quoted as saying in another.
But Swimming Australia has said the quotes are fake.
"There are currently fabricated quotes attributed to Dolphin Kyle Chalmers appearing on social media," a spokesperson said in a statement.
"Kyle Chalmers has never been interviewed by Swim Hub or Swim Aquatics (two of the Facebook pages carrying the fake quotes) and additionally has never provided commentary on LGBT or Transgender athletes."
There is no record of Chalmers making such comments on his own social media accounts or in credible news reports.
He is the latest Australian swimmer to be targeted by fake news posts after AAP FactCheck debunked claims about Mollie O'Callaghan.
The false claims about Chalmers include that he supported O'Callaghan's stance in debunked fake news posts.
Many posts reference Thomas, an American swimmer who competed for the University of Pennsylvania's men's team prior to transitioning in 2019.
She went on to compete for the women's team, which led to widespread media coverage.
Thomas and other transgender athletes were barred from competing in elite women's swimming events following a decision by the sport's governing body, World Aquatics, in 2022.
Thomas lost a legal challenge against that decision, preventing her from competing in the qualifiers for the Paris Olympics, the ABC reported.
Experts have told AAP FactCheck that posts like these are engagement bait: content that encourages users to like, share, comment, or react purely to boost visibility or algorithmic reach.
Dan Halpin, chief executive of cyber investigations firm Cybertrace, previously told AAP FactCheck that the content can ultimately be monetised through advertising revenue or by selling pages with high traffic.
"It's basically spam and many users don't check or care if it's true or not," Mr Halpin said.
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