HANG IN, CHAD
Le Clos has a yen for more Olympic glory
● Chad Le Clos, SA’s most decorated Olympian, will have to thwart history if he is to add to his career stash of four Games medals at Tokyo 2020 later in the year.
The 27-year-old admits he’ll be an underdog going into the showpiece that kicks off on July 25, but he insists he’s preparing to achieve his greatest feat to date.
From a local perspective, a podium spot in Japan will make him the first South African ever to win medals at three Games.
Globally, a butterfly gong will see him become the only mortal, apart from American legend Michael Phelps, to secure medals in the 100m and 200m across three Games. Phelps took four in both events.
“I’m very confident I’ll get a medal,” said Le Clos, who is again targeting three events in Japan — both butterfly races and the 200m freestyle. “I look forward to those finals. I rise to the occasion.”
Le Clos won the 200m fly gold and 100m fly silver at London 2012 and in Rio 2016 he was second in both the 200m freestyle and 100m fly.
Le Clos said he was returning to his old training philosophy that he used in the build-up to 2012 — hard work — admitting he had taken it easy at times since then, either because of attitude or injury.
“I’m back to the big work,” he told the Sunday Times from Cape Town. “I did a set last night that I haven’t done for eight years ... I come from a work background, I’m a workhorse. I’ve had to go back to where it all began.
“I found myself again finally and I feel it’s coming all together nicely ... I’m training f...ing hard, excuse my language. My mind is clear, I’m focused on the right things.”
Le Clos described how he had eased off after the London Olympics.
Even so, he joined Phelps as the only man to win the 100m and 200m fly crowns at a single world championships in 2013. The following year he claimed seven medals at the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
“I made a hell of a lot of mistakes. I’ve taken things for granted. Everybody loses themselves after an Olympics. You get away with doing the minimum ... 2013 and 2014 were absolute joke years. I was coming off those Olympics and I wasn’t sure what was going on. I had too much on my plate...
“I think I neglected the butterfly a little bit,” he added. “I was doing freestyle, I was doing sprints, I wasn’t doing the hard butterfly yardage. I was always the hardest worker, I feel I lost that a little bit.”
Le Clos said he prepared properly for Rio, where he ended second behind China’s drug-tainted Sun Yang in the 200m freestyle, and then minutes later shadow-boxed at Phelps ahead of the 200m fly semifinals.
Le Clos ended fourth in the final the following night.
Mentally he was struggling, worried for both his parents who were battling cancer at the time.
“In 2016 I was a tad emotional, I was a tad
I come from a work background, I’m a workhorse Chad Le Clos Olympic swimmer
angry. There was a rivalry. It wasn’t healthy. I don’t hate anybody, I didn’t hate Phelps, but I was angry. I was angry at the situation, I was too aggressive in my approach [and] I paid for it in the end.”
Le Clos, who struggled with injury since 2018, was diagnosed with a hernia on the right edge of his groin last year, but still landed two bronze medals at the world championships last year, in the 100m and 200m butterfly.
With rehabilitation work going well, he has avoided surgery.
“If it wasn’t good by [last] December I would have had surgery. But I’ve swum painfree, doing continuous work. I’ve had to be smart with it. If I’m stupid and go wakeboarding or roller-blading, I could easily reinjure it.
“If I stay injury-free for the next couple of months there’s no reason I can’t do well.”
A gold would top his triumph from 2012, he said, pointing out that Phelps’ 100m and 200m world records had been broken last by younger rivals, Caeleb Dressel of the US and Hungarian Kristóf Milák. “No one’s expecting me to win.
“My goal is to win ... Do I believe I can win? Absolutely.”