Chad le Clos, the butterfly star
NEVER seen before career ups and downs of a swimmer considered to be among the best butterfly exponents of all time will be unpacked in a documentary due to premiere on DSTV’s SuperSport 1 channel on Friday.
From the joys of Chad le Clos winning his only gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics to the anti-climax of the Rio Olympic Games four years later, and to the depths of his despair and depression after his Tokyo Olympics failure in 2021, the documentary Born Racer gives viewers a poolside seat to his travails and triumphs.
But Le Clos persisted and triumphed again at the Short-Course World Championships held in Melbourne, Australia, in December, with gold medal performances in the 100m and 200m butterfly dashes, his favourite events.
What made Melbourne magical for Le Clos was that he overcame his own mind, which had him previously believing he was well past his best.
After edging ahead of Michael Phelps in his final stride in the 200m butterfly swim at the London Olympics, there were great future expectations of the then 20-year-old Le Clos, who also won a silver medal in the 100m butterfly race, at the same competition.
Phelps is regarded as the greatest Olympian with 28 medals, 23 of which are gold.
Le Clos landed silver in Rio’s 100m and 200m swims, but he counted them as failures.
“Ten years before I would have taken those medals, but I returned home feeling I let down the country. Wayde (van Niekerk) and Caster (Semenya) won, but I got second,” Le Clos said.
“London gave me a drug, an Olympic gold medal in 2012. It was a double-edged sword,” he said.
He sought redemption at the Tokyo Olympics (2021), which was delayed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While preparation for his London joy took three years, Le Clos was far from his best, especially since he had to endure five months of inactivity because of the strict South African lockdown regulations, ahead of Tokyo.
He finished without any medals.
But with his will to win and with assistance from his new German coach, Dirk Lange, the movie closes with him rising from the doldrums of depression to success in Melbourne.
Le Clos was in a jubilant mood, and so too was his family.
His brother Jordan, mother Gerry and father Bert feature in the movie.
They cried when Le Clos was hurting and they cried when he won.
In his interview with the “Sunday Tribune”, Le Clos appreciated their importance, which kept him grounded and he was especially grateful for Bert’s support.
When Le Clos hit tough times, he considered throwing in the towel.
“I always believed, even in the height of my downfall, that there was a 1% chance I could turn it around.”
Now the 31-year-old Le Clos is dreaming about Olympic glory in Paris and beyond.
“Right now I'm just focusing on training and getting better each week, as I’ve come off a six week layover from sickness.”
Le Clos said the idea to make the documentary was a mix between his agent, Jamie Cunningham, and himself.
“It was his idea but I’ve been wanting to document a real story in the build-up to 2020, ever since I lost in Rio. I wanted people to see the comeback story and everything it took.”
Le Clos said from a young age he knew he would have a career in swimming but if things didn’t materialise as they did, the only other option he would have considered was playing for English Premiership team Manchester United.
Cunningham said the movie was meant to take two years to produce and not the eventual five.
Having worked with Le Clos for 10 years, he counted it “a privilege to have had a poolside seat”.
“Chad is a great athlete who works incredibly hard to be the best he can be,“ said Cunningham.
Bert said: “The documentary is personal, I loved it and cried.”
If there was anything Le Clos could have redone, Bert said: “If he listened to me and left a certain coach, he would have had a few more golds for sure.”
SUNDAY TRIBUNE