South African butterflyer Chad le Clos called his 4th-place 200 fly finish “the worst performance of my career,” expressing his disappointment while speaking of his respect for gold medalist Michael Phelps.
“I don’t know what to say. I am in good shape, there is no reason for me to swim that slow,” he said.
“I said before I started, there is a possibility I could come in and get two golds, two silvers, two fourths. I stand by what I said. I am in the best shape of my life, so no excuses, we have to do better. We have to do a lot better.
“It’s the worst performance of my career. There will never be another worse performance in that event, doesn’t matter what I have to do. But like my dad said, ‘We don’t cry for losing, we cry for winning’. As much as I wanted to cry – I really did, I must be honest – I didn’t. I said to myself, ‘Worse things have happened to me this year’. This is not even the fifth worst thing that’s happened to me in the last few months.
“In my mind I was winning. I was so winning. Ten metres to go, I was winning and then my body just wasn’t going. What’s going on? It was the first time in my life that it was like this.
“I wanted to just race in the final. If I come second and my best time, c’est la vie, nothing you can do, but to lose on the 1:54.0 is disgraceful from my side. I’m not the kind of guy that accepts defeat like this on this kind of level.”
Le Clos also talked about beating Phelps in this race back in 2012, and reiterated his respect for the most decorated Olympian of all-time. The rivalry between Phelps and le Clos garnered a lot of fan and media attention over the days leading up to the 200 fly final, but Le Clos said Phelps is still in many ways his swimming idol:
“Maybe that’s the reason I was able to beat him because I’ve never feared anybody and I still don’t,” le Clos said. “I have much respect for him. He always, in many ways, will be my idol.”
Le Clos had a heavy burden after beating Phelps in London and he didn’t live up to expectations here in Rio. He had an OK meet overall, but I was expecting more. There’s a lot of younger talent in the 100 & 200 fly so he better get to work. Personally, I have nothing against the guy. Yeah he was teasing Phelps a bit, but I really don’t think he meant anything malicious. I wish him the best.
I have never seen someone at this level of swimming look around so much. He seemed so preoccupied with Phelps that he didn’t concentrate on himself
Yes you cant seem your best time while busy focusing on other people instead of focusing on your own race and what you have trained for.
My sister didn’t believe me when I told her he didn’t side-breathe his fly. She thought he breathed like Camille Adams.
If you want to poke (the tiger), make sure you don’t choke.
Chad Le not even Clos
Classic!
And BILLABONG said he hoped Phelps would take his losses like a man. Ahem, Ahem. Cough cough… cough.. cough… GOAT… cough.. cough.
Is BILLABONG still around? I picture him lurking and waiting/hoping that the GOAT will falter, but so far nothing doing and hence no BILLABONG.
Still here. The old Goat smoked in the 100 fly. King Chad has been demoted to “Squire”, and Joe Shcooling is the new King. All hail King Joe.
Giving up on Chad that quick?
He was TKO’d by his shadow and didnt recover in time for the final
you sir have won the intranet for the day!!! lol. nicely played
I really hope cseh is ok. He was the real choke of the race. Poor guy gets seventh after looking like a solid chance to win. What happened??? He was there at the 150 then faded to 32.6….
He also don’t understand it. This is the time he swims at the training. If he would swim the same as on the world cup he would have win. The time was not very good.
Probably Phelps has long shadow :-), it is just hard to compete with him (except for youngsters like Kenderesi)
He was too busy dancing around like a gnat around Phelps’ head and got swatted into the bug zapper.