Chad le Clos says he’s aiming for Olympic gold at the Paris Games next year, but this time he’s looking to do it in the shorter 100m butterfly.
His change in focus from the 200m ’fly marks a major shift for the 31-year-old, South Africa’s most decorated Olympian with four medals. It was in the longer event where he achieved his greatest victory, edging American legend Michael Phelps at London 2012.
Le Clos twice won the 100m butterfly silver at the Olympics, in London and Rio 2016, as well as a 200m freestyle silver in Brazil, but the 200m butterfly had always been his premier event.
The 200m leads the 100m in terms of his medal haul at the world championships, at four to three.
But he’s reversing that in a bid to overturn the podium drought he experienced at Tokyo 2020 and again last year’s world championships in Budapest.
“The 100m fly’s the main focus,” Le Clos said after a pre-screening for his documentary Born Racer, which premieres on SuperSport on June 30.
The 90-minute video encapsulates the influence of his family on his career and tracks his rise to fame as well as the depression he suffered in 2021 during which he said he became a “borderline alcoholic”. It ends with Le Clos bouncing back to win two gold medals at the world short-course championships in December.
“The 100 fly will be the main focus for next year. For sure,” said Le Clos. “I'm still training for the 200m ’fly, but we are also swimming the 100m freestyle as well. We’re going to have all three for the world championships.”
He will have to choose between the 200m butterfly and 100m freestyle at the gala in Fukuoka in Japan in July because of a scheduling clash, with the men’s 100m freestyle semifinals being staged shortly before the 200m butterfly final on the fourth night.
“My 51.3 sec in the 100m butterfly at nationals [in Gqeberha in April] was really good,” said Le Clos. “We’re definitely 50-point in the summer at the worlds, hopefully that’s a bronze medal for me,” said Le Clos.
“I’ll be very happy with bronze. And then we’ve got to go 50-point-low again at the end of the year somewhere and then we’re knocking on 49 and that’s right on Olympic gold right there. Fifty-point-zero, 49-high, that’s maybe winning the Olympics.
“That’s where we should be.”
Le Clos’s 51.37 ranks him tied 11th in the world so far this year, while his 1 min 56.05 in the 200m fly places him 24th.
His 100m best time is 50.56 from 2015, but Le Clos said he was confident in the training he had been doing since linking up with German coach Dirk Lange in Frankfurt after the Commonwealth Games. Lange coached Cameron van der Burgh to Olympic 100m breaststroke gold in London.
I'm disappointed in myself looking at that period of my life, but it was such a bad time. It [the drinking] wasn’t a daily thing.
— Chad le Clos
Le Clos spoke about his fight against depression around the Tokyo Games, saying in the documentary that he had become a “borderline alcoholic”.
“I was really in a hole and I was like drinking a bit to be happy,” Le Clos told TimesLIVE. “Not in a room by myself, but at parties to find a sense of happiness.
“I'm disappointed in myself looking at that period of my life, but it was such a bad time. It [the drinking] wasn’t a daily thing.”
But since rediscovering his mojo he’s looking to reclaim his position at the top of the world, especially in the 25-metre short course pool.
“In short course they don't have any chance any time soon,” said Le Clos. “They're gonna lose short course to me for the next few years,” he said, promising to break a butterfly world record or two.
“I’ll try for all three [events] — 50m, 100m and 200m.”
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