Australian swimming champion Kyle Chalmers will have a secret weapon at his side at the Paris Olympics: his new fiancée Ingeborg Løyning.
The Australian world swimming champion had been through a rollercoaster of emotions at the recent Commonwealth Games when claims of a “love triangle” emerged between him and new partner Emma McKeon and Cody Simpson.
The ordeal led Chalmers to seriously consider quitting the sport he loves, but he returns to Paris with a vengeance alongside his fiancée, Norwegian swimmer Løyning.
While the swimmers were unable to take part in the opening ceremony along the River Seine in Paris overnight (AEST), he shared images from inside the Australian athletes’ village, including one of him looking very much in love with Løyning.
“My Norwegian princess,” she captioned the image with a heart emoji.
Australian swimming champion Kyle Chalmers and his fiancée Ingeborg Løyning in Paris
Chalmers and Løyning announced their engagement in June this year, putting an end to the “love triangle” rumors once and for all.
The Australian swimmer shared the news on Instagram on Thursday night along with a carousel of images with his stunning ladylove.
In the first image, Kyle, 25, is seen beaming as his Norwegian love, 23, tenderly rests her hand on his muscled chest, giving fans a glimpse of her stunning engagement ring.
A second painting shows the couple’s hands intertwined as they both show off their tattoos and unbreakable bond.
Ingeborg made sure the star of the third image was her blinding ring, as she extended her hand towards the camera.
Kyle Chalmers and his girlfriend Ingeborg Løyning have gotten engaged. The Australian swimmer shared the news on Instagram on Thursday night along with a series of pictures with his stunning girlfriend. Both are pictured
In the first image, Kyle is seen beaming as his Norwegian love tenderly rests her hand on his muscled chest, giving fans a glimpse of her stunning engagement ring.
A second painting shows the couple’s hands intertwined as they both show off their tattoos and unbreakable bond.
Ingeborg claimed that the star of the third image is her blinding ring, as she extends her hand towards the camera.
The couple captioned the images simply by noting the date of the announcement, ‘19.06.24’, alongside an infinity symbol.
Friends and fans rushed to congratulate the newly engaged couple.
“AHHHHHH! I’m so excited for you two! I love you guys! I can’t wait to celebrate with you soon!” one fan said.
‘King and Queen,’ wrote AFL star Clayton Oliver.
Olympic legend Grant Hackett chose to keep things simple, adding: “Congratulations.
“I’d say it’s simple, but this is amazing. Congrats man,” fellow swimmer Sam Short added alongside two red heart emojis.
“Congratulations bro,” commented athlete Stewart McSweyn.
Kyle was first linked to Ingeborg in June 2023.
In November of the same year, they practically confirmed their romance after each uploaded a collage gallery of photos to Instagram that contained a very cozy image.
The photo showed Chalmers and Løyning looking like a couple as they posed arm in arm and walked a dog.
Another image showed Løyning and Chalmers enjoying an outdoor meal together.
In November of that same year, they all but confirmed their romance after each of them uploaded a photo gallery to Instagram. The couple appears embracing (top left) and a photo of them having dinner together (bottom right).
The couple’s good news comes after Chalmers revealed she almost quit swimming amid the infamous love triangle saga that rocked the Australian team in 2022.
Chalmers has been in the eye of a media storm for his involvement in a love triangle with his ex-girlfriend Emma McKeon and fellow swimmer Cody Simpson.
Chalmers and McKeon briefly dated in 2021.
McKeon and Simpson then made their relationship Instagram official in July 2022, three months after they began secretly dating.
Chalmers’ backflip at the World Championships (in which he reversed his decision not to go to Budapest, thus denying Simpson a place on the team) led to accusations that his decision was not based purely on swimming.
The story did not go away during the Commonwealth Games, where the three swimmers competed for Australia in Birmingham, and Chalmers says she spent the hours before her 100m freestyle race crying in her hotel room.
“It’s a sport I love,” he told A Current Affair. “But I was in a very, very dark place.”
Chalmers made headlines when he was caught in a “love triangle” with his ex Emma McKeon (left) and singer Cody Simpson (right).
‘Reflecting on that, I asked myself, “Why am I doing this?”
“Last year in particular, I think I hit rock bottom. I was probably alone at the Commonwealth Games. I was in my room fully preparing for the final and I was crying in my room.
‘We’re in a university, it’s a pretty old building. What am I? What am I here for?’
Chalmers previously revealed he had written a retirement statement amid his struggles and wanted to play local football in Australia.
The story did not go away during the Commonwealth Games, where the three swimmers competed for Australia in Birmingham, and Chalmers (pictured) says she spent the hours before her 100m freestyle race crying in her hotel room.
“It was very, very stressful,” Chalmers told the Soda Room podcast. “I was on the verge of saying I didn’t want to do it anymore and I was going to stay in Port Lincoln and play country football.”
She added that any suggestion she had left Simpson out of the Budapest squad was “absolute bullshit” but it was not until the Commonwealth Games that she hit her lowest ebb.
“We’ve just broken the Commonwealth record and won gold… and they’ve just started,” she says. “Not one question about swimming… This was all supposedly nonsense. There was no dispute.”
Chalmers will compete in the men’s 100m freestyle at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, having previously won gold in this event at Rio 2016.
Despite a shoulder injury, he won silver at Tokyo 2020, narrowly missing out on gold to Caeleb Dressel, and now faces strong competition from international swimmers such as Maxime Grousset, David Popovici and Pan Zhanle.
Chalmers also contributes to Australia’s relay teams, holding world records in the men’s 4x100m medley freestyle, the men’s 100m short-course freestyle and the men’s 4x100m short-course medley relay.