Chalmers was born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada to a mother from the Birdtail Sioux First Nation and a father of Scottish-Canadian ancestry.

She competed with the Canadian National Jr. Track Team, eventually receiving a scholarship to Northern Arizona University.

after the race, in which she finished third (behind Yelena Romanova and Tatyana Dorovskikh) and qualified for the bronze medal, she explained to reporters about her father, "I said to him when he was in the hospital that I wanted to prove to him that I could do it".

In 1994 in Victoria, Canada, she retained her Commonwealth 3000 m title in a personal best time of 8:32.17, placing her third on the 1994 World rankings (she did not compete in the 1500 meters).

[4] In 1996, just before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Chalmers retired from her career as a Canadian track and field athlete due to a calf injury.