South African Olympic champion Chad le Clos is withdrawing from the 2023 World Championships, his SG Frankfurt club sports director Michael Ulmer told German media on Monday.
Over the weekend, le Clos competed at the German National Championships in Berlin, winning the 100-meter butterfly in 52.11 and taking third in the 200 fly with a 1:57.99. The 31-year-old was only about a second and a half off his best time in the 100 fly (50.56 from the 2015 World Championships), but he was more than five seconds off his best time in the 200 fly (1:52.96 from his 2012 Olympic victory over Michael Phelps).
Ulmer said that an illness forced le Clos to take a five-week break from training that he has yet to fully recover from. Earlier this year, he went 1:56.06 in the 200 fly to win the South African national title in April.
“He is not yet that fit after his five-week break from training due to illness,” Ulmer said. “His focus is clearly on the Olympics.”
At last year’s World Championships, le Clos pulled out of the meet after struggling to recover from multiple bouts of bronchitis. But that seemed to fuel him during the short-course season throughout the fall and winter, where the self-proclaimed “Chad le Clos 2.0″ racked up medals at the World Cup Series and the Short Course World Championships.
Since last October, he has been training with coach Dirk Lange’s Frankfurt program to prepare for a fourth Olympics in Paris next summer.
South Africa initially announced a 19-swimmer roster, but an update last month revealed just 12 swimmers remaining on the team (notably absent were Matt Sates and Pieter Coetze). Now that number is down to just 11.
I’ve always been a big fan of LeClos. He needs to realize it’s simply not going to happen anymore. The overboard expectations lend to fear. Minus the fear he’d understand that at this stage it’s preferable to show up and enjoy the experiences and the peers.
People here telling chad to “take the beating” or “ stop being a coward” 🤦🏽♂️ you literally don’t know what he’s dealing with especially if he’s had mental health problems so these comments aren’t helping.
He should def get some help. He puts so much pressure on himself with all the talking about getting his crown back. No wonder he struggles mentally with all that pressure instead of enjoying the sport
Last week during US trials, he joined a Brett Hawks livestream and said he’d been ill for a few weeks and lost a bunch of training and was unlikely to be fit enough for WC. He was using German champs as a chance to test his fitness to determine if he was fit enough.
Lol mister excuses back at it again. 😂
No Dressel no Milak and still can’t show up. 🤦🏻♂️
Agree. On his social media it def did not look like he was sick more than 2 weeks. Should be able to get fit from 2 weeks off in April till worlds.
A nasty bout of bronchitis, or any upper respiratory infection, can take up to six weeks to clear up. If you start rigorous cardio too early in recovery, it can prolong the symptoms. Chad leClos is now also a little older, and that can make it harder to regain full health and fitness. We don’t know his situation or his symptoms fully, but I feel it is better for him physically and mentally to sit out a meet for which he’s not ready, than to compete and not do what he wants to do.
Dude go to the world champ and take the beating like a man instead of a coward
Must be hard to put so much pressure on yourself. I hope he gets the help mentally to get back
I can’t hate on Chad anymore. His comments in 2013/14 were so overblown I started to dislike him. I never felt his performances lived up to his own hype but looking back he was very, very good from 2012-14. He’s had his moments since but he really was the best Fly swimmer in the world at that time.
In 2015 he won gold (100m) and silver (200m) WC
He was pretty good until 2019.
Dude take the beating from the younger guys like a champ and don’t be a coward