Chad le Clos KO’ed early at Paris Olympics, but vows to keep swinging

Chad le Clos failed to advance beyond the 100m butterfly heats at the Paris Olympics on Friday but, clutching his shoulder, vowed to keep on swimming.

He ended second in his heat in 52.24sec, which was good enough for 24th overall, missing the top 16 by 0.6.

This was his only event at the Games and the first showpiece in four visits where he has not made a final at least. He was fifth in the 200m butterfly at Tokyo 2020.

The 32-year-old carried an injury coming into the gala, but had been hoping to sneak through into the final of an event in which he had won two Olympic silvers, at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

“It was tough. The last 25 was really hard,” he said afterwards.

“On my best day, in my best time, that would have been hard [to make the final], right? I would have probably made the final, sure, but it would be a hell of a swim for me to get on that podium,” said Le Clos.

“I want to be competitive,” he said.

“Make no mistake, I didn't come here for the T-shirts, please. This was not good. I was half expecting this because of outside circumstances.

“But, hey, if everything was sweet, I’d be in tears now for not making it back to the semifinals. I’m OK now. It is what it is.”

He said he had been struggling since injuring himself four weeks ago when a child jumped into the water in front of him mid-stroke.

Le Clos said he needed to undergo rehabilitation for the injury that affected his neck and shoulder, but he was looking at going to the world short-course championships in Budapest in December.

“I’m happy with the career I’ve had. It’s not done yet. I’m definitely in the departure lounge. Like I said, I’m a pensioner. The shoulder, the back, everything is falling apart. But it is what it is. We keep swinging. I'm not going to give up.

“The boys are going to have to put a few more arrows in me before I stop, unfortunately. I wish I could stop, but I can’t. It’s here,” he said, tapping his hand on his chest.

One of Le Clos’ missions is to overhaul Ryan Lochte’s haul of individual medals, which stands at 23, 14 of them gold. The South African has 19 individual medals, 12 of them gold.

“ I want to try to get that record of Lochte’s short course. Commonwealth [Games] in two years, if there’s a Commonwealth. We’re hanging around for that.

“Maybe I’ll do 50 freestyle in four years’ time. We’ll see what happens,” said Le Clos.

Matthew Sates, swimming in the same heat, finished seventh.

Rebecca Meder advanced to the 200m individual medley semifinals in the evening, squeezing through in 16th place in 2min 11.96sec.

“I’m not happy with the time, but if you look at all the top swimmers, they’re not quite on their times either. I know I’ve got a [personal best] in the bag, and I’ve been training hard.

“I cried after the race, I think, not because of anything other than the relief I felt after swimming the heat swim,” said Meder, who has had to wait a full week before her only race of the gala.

“I think waiting this long to race has been quite a challenge.”