Le Clos sets sights on Olympics

Just a year out of his teens, there is still a lot of the world he wants to see and things he wants to do.

First, come July and August, he has the Olympic Games in London to keep uppermost in his mind, which means a big workload of training.

Yet it’s all in a day’s work as far as 20-year-old Chad le Clos of Westville is concerned, something he’s been doing regularly since 12 years ago, when he was recommended to Seagull’s Swim Club coach Graham Hill by his first swim coach at Penzance Junior School, Lyndsay Manthey.

He’s come a long way since then and judging by his most recent exploits, he’s still got a long way to go.

He was the most successful of all the swimmers at the recent Swimming South Africa Championships and Olympic Trials in Durban, winning four titles, achieving the Olympic A standard qualifying time in each of them, and improving his world ranking to No3 in the 200m breaststroke with only Takeshi Matsuda of Japan and Nick d’Arcy of Australia ahead of him.

Le Clos is down to swim both individual medleys, the 400m and 200m, and both the 100m and 200m butterfly events as well. On his way to winning the four national titles, Le Clos never lost even a heat or a semi-final.

“I swam every race in lane 4,” he said. “I did this on purpose, to teach myself to race hard in the morning heats and to put more pressure on myself in the evening finals to go out and win.

“This was my sixth senior nationals and it was the best I ever did in them.

“Last year and the year before I won more medals in the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Olympics than I did at the nationals.”

Relaxed and laid back for our early morning rendezvous at a Glenwood coffee spot, he said he was looking forward to leaving for Europe at the end of this month with the rest of the South African Olympic swim squad for eight weeks of training and competitive swimming.

“We finally arrive in London just five days before the start of the Olympics,” he said, “and that’s when the fun really begins.

“I’m looking forward to experiencing the ‘Olympic Spirit’ and mixing with the other athletes from all over the world, some of whom I know quite well, like Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

“They are all likeable guys, easy going and easy to talk with and get on with.

“The buzz in the Games Village will be awesome and before you know it you will have your first swim in the new Olympic pool and experience what it is like to swim in front of a huge crowd.”

Le Clos said that to make it into even one final is a fabulous achievement – “to know you are among the best eight swimmers in the world in that event is just amazing!

“When I am on the starting blocks I am always aware of whom I am swimming against. It goes through my mind and during the race I am aware of what is going on around me, where the others on my right and left are – all with respect to me and where the race is at.”

Asked what his chances are for winning a medal in London are, his response is: “I am going to take each day as it comes, thinking only of one race at a time before moving on to the next.

“Before you even get near a medal you have to get through the heats and the semi-finals.

“Once in the final, then, yes, you are in with a chance.”

Le Clos’s Olympic week starts on Day 1 with the 400m individual medley (IM); on Day 3 and 4 he swims the heats and hopefully the final of the 200m fly; then on Days 5 and 6 it’s the 200m IM; and lastly it’s the 100m fly on Days 6-7.

Le Clos paid tribute to his coach, Graham Hill: “He has to take a lot of the credit for where I am today.

“I have a lot of respect for him as a man and as my coach. Sure, we have our ups and downs, what relationship hasn’t?

“But at Seagulls we are a very close knit community and there are four Olympians in our club – Kathryn Meaklim, Charl Crous, Leith Shankland and myself.”

Le Clos said that Phelps had always been a favourite of his.

“He was my hero once upon a time,” said le Clos. “but now I have to race against him it’s a little different.

“We have a common sponsor, Omega Watches, and we swim the same events, which as far as I know will be the only two swimmers like this at these Olympics.”

Le Clos revealed that as a youngster he specialised in breaststroke, but this all changed at the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“I decided that if I wanted to become the best swimmer in the world then I would have to swim against the best in the world. And since Michael had just won a record eight Olympic gold medals in Beijing, I figured I’d have to swim in the same disciplines he excelled in, the medleys and the butterfly.”

Le Clos said that it had been at the SA Olympic Trials in Durban four years ago, in 2008, that he saw some of his friends qualifying to go to Beijing. “It was then that I made up my mind that I was going to also qualify – in 2012.

“I had just turned 16 and was the youngest swimmer in the SA team to go to the Commonwealth Youth Games, my first international meet abroad, and I came back with two gold medals and a bronze which also spurred me on to my Olympic dream.

“I had my eyes opened then,” he said, “being a member of a team travelling abroad together, being away from home for a time.

“It seemed tough at the time but looking back, I realise I have adjusted to the long flights abroad and being separated from my family.”

2009 was also a big year for him as he was selected for the national senior team for the first time and found himself in Rome for the World Championships, swimming in the 200m fly and 400m IM.

“And I came nowhere,” he recalled. “I didn’t even make the semi-finals. I had dreamed I would swim against Michael (Phelps) but that didn’t happen either.”

A year later, he won his first gold medals abroad, one at the Youth Olympics and the other at the World Short-Course Championships in Dubai in the 200m fly.

In that year he also won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games for the 200m fly and 400m IM as well as two silvers and a bronze swimming in the three relay events.

He was also captain of the Westville Boys High swim team that swept the boards.

Last year he swam in every leg of the Fina World Cup Series, winning 23 gold medals at seven venues and being named Swimmer of the Series.

After these Olympics he will again campaign in the World Cup Series and then defend his 200m fly title at the World Short-Course Championships in Istanbul at the end of the year.

There are two things on top of his shopping list while he is in London.

One is a Starbucks coffee mug to add to his collection and the other is either a Chelsea or an Arsenal football shirt to add to his others from Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, AC Milan, Roma and Toulouse.

“I am a fanatical football fan,” said Le Clos. “If I had not chosen to swim, I would have been a footballer. I love the game!” – The Star