Noah Millard sent a message to his mum as soon as he heard the news Kyle Chalmers was going to be at the AIS on Friday and told her about his plan to smash the Olympic Games champion's schoolboy record.
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So the 15-year-old Victorian swimmer dipped his size 17 feet into the water at the junior state teams championships in Canberra and powered his way through a blistering 200-metre freestyle race.
He hit the wall and looked up to see two things. The first was a record time of 1.49.91 and the second was a smiling Chalmers waiting to congratulate him.
"I'm super stoked. I had no expectation to come here and break that record, but I got told last night that he was coming and it was good to do it while he was watching," Millard said.
"I found out he was coming before I got on the bus on Thursday night. I knew my personal best was on half a second off his record, so I sent a text to mum and said: 'I'm going to break this record'.
"I saw him as soon as I got out of the pool and that was amazing. I shook his hand and just said thank you. He was right by the ladder and said good job. That was awesome."
The changing of the guard was a perfect moment to end the championships, with Queensland winning the overall divisions after three days of interstate swimming.
Chalmers was there as an ambassador four years after he raced at the same event in Canberra and he got to cast his eye over the next generation of talent.
Millard has his sights set on making the junior world championship team next year, but first he's set for a showdown with Chalmers at the open nationals short course titles in Melbourne at the end of October.
"It was awesome to see it get broken, and he did it pretty easily," Chalmers grinned.
"That's exciting, he's definitely got the attributes to be a good swimmer. He's quite big and got size 17 feet, so I wish him all the best and in a couple of weeks time we'll get to race each other.
"He told me we'd be racing at the short-course nationals, which will be good ... It's a special place to come back [to the AIS], it was my first trip with South Australia in 2008. It's got some very special memories for me."
Chalmers was the tangible inspiration for the swimmers between the age of 13 and 17 years old given he was in their shoes only a few years ago.
The 20-year-old was still at school when he won Olympic gold at Rio two years ago, ending an Australian 48-year drought to win the 100 metres freestyle. He also won silver at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year.
"I don't know if it gives me confidence, I think of myself more of a distance swimmer. But seeing [Chalmers] here definitely is [an inspiration]. I guess I'll just see where it goes," Millard said.
