South African Olympian Chad le Clos will officially be returning to competition this week at the South African Short Course Nationals after taking an extended break due to a back injury.
Le Clos last swam a major meet at the 2024 SC World Championships, where he missed the final in all three butterfly events. He swam a few smaller South African meets in July, only competing in 50s and 100s. He raced the 50 fly at one of these meets, touching in 22.95, which was just under three tenths off the 22.67 he swam in Budapest last December.
The Championships which will run from September 25th-28th, 2025, and, according to the psych sheet, he is entered in the 50 and 100 free, 50 and 100 fly, and 50 backstroke events.
He told South African media that he would “see how those go, and then at the World Cup I’ll just kind of see where I’m at with everything.”
Le Clos is planning on attending the World Cup, though he said he would “probably” just swim the first stop in Carmel, Indiana from October 10-12. He raced all three stops last year, winning the 200 butterfly at the final leg in Singapore.
He also said that his goal is a “big Commonwealth next year…By then we’ll have a good squad up and running and it’s going to be very exciting, I can’t wait.” At the 2025 World Championships, South Africa won four total medals: one gold, two silvers, and a bronze without le Clos on the team.
With young backstroke star Pieter Coetze making a breakthrough, if le Clos is back in form by next summer, the South African men’s team could be very strong at the Commonwealth Games.
idc what people say about this guy, i for one am super hyped i can see him and his energy at world cup!
Give me a break!!!
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