Six months after the 2016 Olympic Games, two-time silver medalist in Rio, South African Chad Le Clos still has nightmares over the men’s 200m butterfly final. Having struck gold at the 2012 edition of the Games in London, beating swimming hero, American Michael Phelps, Le Clos badly wanted to claim a 2nd title in the event, silencing Phelps fans ecstatic with the legend’s comeback.
However, another gold in the 200m fly was not to be in Rio, as Le Clos was relegated to 4th place, whereas Phelps clinched the gold and would go on to finish with a total of 28 Olympic medals by the end of his campaign. Le Clos now seeks victory in the 200m butterfly badly, starting with this year’s World Championships in Budapest.
“I want to win that 200m fly badly. I am training for that and will hopefully win gold this year. So that is my goal,” said Le Clos to Independent Online South Africa.
“I want it that bad. I just want Phelps to come back. I’ve had nightmares about that. I wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat over that race.”
Although Phelps has reiterated on multiple occasions that he is indeed retired for good, Le Clos has enlisted a new squad to help in his quest for butterfly dominance. Le Clos has now set-up camp in Cape Town under guidance of Andrea di Nino and Bobby Hurley and is also affiliated with the Energy Standard Club under James Gibson in Turkey.
Le Clos describes his new training approach as ‘very technical.’ “I’ve learned a lot about my technique and stroke over the past month. I’m still pumping the mileage.
“Everyone has a similar approach by the way you structure it. I’ve done a lot of techniques, a lot of new stuff.
“It has been a positive change, I’m happy with everything and we will obviously see how the results go. It is still early days.”
The 24-year-old kicked off 2017 with a victory in the men’s 100m butterfly in Durban (52.20) and plans on competing in the 200m butterfly race at the final Grand Prix stop in Stellenbosch this weekend. He’ll need to notch a time in the 1:54-low range to knock off Japan’s Masato Sakai as the world leader in the event headed into World Championships-qualifying season. Japanese Olympic bronze medalist in the men’s 400m IM, Daiya Seto, looks primed to rival Sakai and Le Clos for the 200m title in Budapest, with the host nation’s Laszlo Cseh and Tamas Kenderesi no doubt also vying for a home crowd-fueled gold in the event.
2016-2017 LCM MEN 200 FLY
LE CLOS
1.53.33
| 2 | Masato SAKAI | JPN | 1.53.71 | 04/15 |
| 3 | Laszlo CSEH | HUN | 1.53.72 | 07/26 |
| 4 | Kristof MILAK | HUN | 1.53.79*WJR | 07/01 |
| 5 | Nao HOROMURA | JPN | 1.53.90 | 08/20 |
Staying cool, collected and in the present, Le Clos says, “I’m not too worried about the times now. Last year I was obsessed about swimming fast all the time. I went fast but I am not going to get over-amped about it.
“I’ve had some good blocks of training. Stellenbosch would be a good gauge for me.”
When someone says they have ‘nightmares’ it doesn’t mean they have actual nightmares. Which reminds me , we don’t hear much anymore about nightmares . They have been replaced by all – day mental illness.
So far we are just on missed opportunities , in this case the 200 fly in Rio. As always a win for X is a loss for Y .
We need a translater for your comments
Funny because I distinctly remember commenting summer 2015 when Phelps swam a 1:52.9 that Le Clos would be having nightmares that night in Kazan. Little did I realize how true that statement was.
Sadly, even if Phelps were to come back to swimming again, his 200 fly days would be history. Le Clos will have to live with those nightmares forever.
If you were talking about anyone else you’d be right. But I remember in 2013, when the mass consensus was “Even if Phelps comes back to swimming, his 200 fly days are history.”
Is it insensitive if I started laughing when he said he had nightmares about loosing to Phelps??
He def needs to work on his technique & quit looking at the other lanes when swimming. Look at the above pic, it shows how he’s always peeking at everyone. Thought we learned not to do that in grade school swimming??
great picture to go along with the article title…. fitting
Dude shoulda been a multi olympic gold medalist across multi stroke and IMs by now. Shoulda started training for 400 IM right after London 2012. We forget his background and his results after hearing him talk so much. He was so busy obsessing about Phelps in that one race that he forgot to diversify.
He made 3 Olympic finals individually, that’s not that bad man, I’m pretty sure it’s the most other than Phelps and ties with Hagino and Seto
I remember Seto only made 400 im and 200 fl
Le Clos never mentions competitors other than Phelps, even when they’re his biggest obstacle. If he wants to win he still has to get past Kenderesi, Sakai, and Cseh
You’re so right. He’s haunted by the loss to Michael Phelps and he got fourth. What about the loss to the other two? What an ego. Not even a mention of the other two that beat him. I hope this motivates Sakai and Kenderesi to beat him once again. He’ll be trying to silence them once again as well. ☺
So many intelligent answer…
To be fair I’m not sure this is the right move fo CLC, he doesn’t seem to have the same feeling with 200 fly he had in 2012-2015.
Maybe he could change his tactic, with a fast first 150 and try to resist at the end like he did in the 200 free in Rio.
He certainly did that in the 200 free at Rio. And three rounds of that in the 200 free cost him his legs in the 200 fly.