In 2012, the world watched as an eager, young swimmer from South Africa dethroned an American legend in the men’s 200m butterfly event. Chad Le Clos made his mark on the world at the London Olympic Games as he claimed gold in the event, touching in a new African Record-setting time of 1:52.96, while American Michael Phelps settled for silver in 1:53.01.
Flash forward to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and swim fans everywhere watched Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all-time, take back his 200m butterfly title, while the now 24-year-old Le Clos found himself off the medal stand. Rio saw Phelps win gold in 1:53.36, while Japanese swimmer Masato Sakai earned silver (1:53.40) and Hungarian Tamás Kenderesi notched bronze (1:53.62). Le Clos wound up 4th in what the South African calls a sluggish time of 1:54.06.
While reflecting on that 200m butterfly final while Singapore this weekend for the FINA World Cup stop, Le Clos tells The Strait Times that the field overall in Rio was slow and lackluster.
“With absolute respect to Michael, 1:53.36 is pretty bad. Even for me 1:54.06, come on, man, I did that in training a few weeks ago.”
Le Clos says, “If Michael had won in 1:52 or 1:51 I’d have been like ‘cool, I got beaten properly’, so now it’s a little bit harder (to digest).”
In what he calls ‘one of his worst races ever’, Le Clos told The Strait Times, “The disappointment I’m feeling right now is because of the way I trained. My preparation was perfect. But it just didn’t happen.
“It still hasn’t registered that I didn’t win at the (Rio) Olympics.”
It’s not as though Le Clos came up entirely empty-handed in Rio, however, as the former Seagulls Club swimmer somewhat surprised a stacked men’s 200m freestyle final by winning silver. His time of 1:45.20 added another African record to his career’s resume.
Le Clos was also a part of the historic three-way tie for silver in the men’s 100m butterfly event, where he, Phelps and Hungarian Laszlo Cseh all touched exactly in 51.14 behind Singapore’s Joseph Schooling. Schooling wowed the world in a new Olympic Record time of 50.39, nabbing gold while registering the fastest time ever in a textile suit.
And now it’s Schooling who is in Le Clos’ sites moving forward. Schooling has said he’ll most likely be adding the 200m butterfly back in to his racing repertoire, along with possibly the 200m IM and 100m freestyle. With Phelps now retired (again), Schooling has a target on his back, as far as Le Clos is concerned.
“For next year I’m just focusing on the world championships and taking back what’s mine,” says Le Clos, who earned the 2013 World Championship title in the 200m butterfly.
Regarding the 2017 FINA World Championships set to take place in Budapest, “Joseph has to be there. I’d rather lose to Joseph than win when he’s not there. I pride myself on racing the best swimmers in the world. That’s how I like to roll.”
WHY WAS I NOT 50 SECONDS AHEAD YOU MIGHT ASK?
Apologies for the screaming but I had to go authentic .
Whatever. Phelps will go down as the greatest of all time, and le Clown goes down as a footnote, an also-ran, who once, on the best day of his life, got lucky and managed to beat Phelps because Phelps had a bad finish at an Olympics he was ill-prepared for and didn’t even want to compete in.
If your preparation was perfect, we wouldn’t be reading this article…
I would like to know how he revamped his start in the Rio lead-up…
Watch prelims, semis, finals of the 200 free and 200 fly. He SMOKED everyone off the blocks. I haven’t seen a start that dominant – maybe ever.
I understand that Le Clos is very talented. I believe he didn’t have the best preparation and strategy before and during competition.
If only he had great coach and supporting facility like MOST US (and foreign) swimmers, I believe he could at least swim one event.
I am disappointed with his remarks though. Olympics always threw out surprises and some swimmer were in better position than others but that’s nornal. and him winning 200 fly is actually nowhere near the biggest shock.
Let me give you an example : joseph schooling may not even have great talent than Le Clos. But his training and strategy (helped develop by Eddie and Sergio I’m sure.).
I think a coach… Read more »
Troy did pretty good things with LeClos’ countrymate Sebastian Rousseau (not to mention Switkowski, Dan Wallace, Szaranek, etc – that program is built for the 200 fly).
And in Budapest he will have to beat Schooling, Sakai and especially the young Hungarian Kenderesi who will be at home.
Very disappointed with that kind of comments.
“taking back what’s mine”? When he will have 3 olympic golds, 4 world golds and the world record in that event then he will have the right to speak.
The time in the olympic final? Who cares? MP would have won in 1.59, it would have not changed my enthusiasm at all. Only the gold counted and he touched the wall first. That’s the only thing that matters.
Just a sore loser. One more.
GOAT reads this, Phelps face, looks at the calendar, starts secretly and quietly planning world domination…