The Olympic swimmer who chases a rubber chicken in the pool
By Tom Decent
Greyhounds chase fake rabbits around a racetrack.
Now an Australian swimmer is chasing a plastic chicken down the pool in a bid to win his first individual Olympic medal.
Matt Temple, Australia’s male 100m butterfly champion, booked his ticket to a second Olympics this month by edging out pop star Cody Simpson at the trials in Brisbane.
Temple loves chickens. The 25-year-old from South Australia even has a chicken pen at home in Adelaide called Cluckingham Palace. He has an Instagram account devoted to his birds named Temple’s Tweeters.
It became known earlier this year that Temple had introduced a bizarre training method to get his times down before the Olympics in Paris.
“It’s no joke,” he said.
Matt Temple is a fan of chickens ... in and out of the pool.Credit: Artwork by Bethany Rae, photo by Delly Carr
Sian Barris, a biomechanics and skill acquisition specialist at the South Australian Sports Institute (SASI), came up with the left-field idea to help Temple.
Tim Rawlins, a performance analyst at SASI, was also part of the plan.
At racetracks across the country, greyhounds are trained to sprint around a track and chase a mechanical rabbit before crossing the finish line.
For Temple, it’s the same principle, just in a chlorine pool, as footage provided by SASI shows.
“They attach a dog toy, which is a chicken, onto a string line and onto a [handheld] drill,” Temple explained. “I’ll put the chicken at my feet, drop it down to the bottom, we both say go, and they start the drill. I chase the chicken and see who gets to the wall first.
“Sian normally comes up with ideas for some sort of games to help me or to help keep me interested in training and keep me motivated.”
Olympic swimmer Matt Temple with his pet, Sid.Credit: Instagram
This masthead was told the rubber chicken has not made its way to France and is not at the Australian team’s training base in Canet, near the Spanish border.
Temple is an uncomplicated athlete who doesn’t say much but trains hard.
“Unfortunately, I had to get rid of two roosters a few weeks ago. They were making too much noise in the morning,” Temple said. “I put them on Gumtree, and some people collected them. There’s probably seven left and a duck. We’re down from about 11 or 12.”
Temple’s best friend on the Dolphins team is 100m freestyler Kyle Chalmers. They were long-time training partners in Adelaide before the unexpected news earlier this year their coach, Peter Bishop, had his accreditation for the Olympics revoked following an investigation by SASI. No explanation was forthcoming.
It was far from ideal for the duo, especially in an Olympic year. Chalmers moved to the Sunshine Coast to train under Olympian Ash Delaney, while Temple remained in South Australia in the hope his routine and preparation for Paris would not be derailed.
“It really rattled me and the rest of the squad in South Australia, and that made it very challenging for me in and out of the water,” Temple said.
Bronze medallists Isaac Cooper, Grayson Bell, Matthew Temple and Kyle Chalmers after the men’s 4x50m medley relay final at the 2022 world shortcourse championships in Melbourne. Credit: Daniel Pockett, Getty
“Normally, I’d go head-to-head with Kyle in the pool and without him there … I was on my own for a couple of months, which I found really hard.
“To be honest, I’ve had a pretty hard last six months for myself. It’s been a struggle to get here. I think it’s a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders [qualifying for the Olympics].”
Temple isn’t in the top tier of Australian swimmers at the Olympics just yet but is considered an outside chance for a medal in the 100m butterfly.
He finished sixth at the Tokyo Olympics and fourth at last year’s world championships. Temple clocked a time of 50.25 seconds in December at the Japan Open.
Since then, only Canada’s Josh Liendo (50.06), Switzerland’s Noe Ponti (50.16) and US superstar Caeleb Dressel (50.19) have gone faster in the event. France’s Maxime Grousset won last year’s world championships in 50.14.
On current form, Temple should make the 100m butterfly final.
“I went a 50.2 in December … and I think around 50.2 could get me on the podium,” he said.
If only there was a rubber chicken in the Paris pool to spur Temple on.
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