With just about every other swimmer around the world, 27-year-old Chad Le Clos of South Africa saw his Olympic preparation hurriedly disrupted with the unfolding of the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic.
Just days before the Tokyo Organizing Committee confirmed that this year’s Olympic Games would be moving to 2021, the nation of Turkey where Le Clos’ Energy Standard is based, was set to go into lockdown. All athletes and coaches had roughly 36 hours to leave the country, knocking the original 6-7 week training plan completely off course.
With a few days’ worth of reflection under his belt, South Africa’s most decorated Olympian is looking to next year’s Games now in earnest, with Le Clos already tossing around new schedule ideas.
“It does change things for me a bit now,” Le Clos told ESPN of the postponement. “I was solely focused on the 100- and 200-metre butterfly, but I have built up such great resilience that I will be looking to add an event or two next year.
“I don’t know what those are yet, but I have had a great 12 weeks of preparation since the beginning of the year. It was my best camp ever. I was prepared to swim really fast at the Olympics, but by next year I will be even more prepared.
“So if the program stays the same, and they stick with morning finals [for the U.S. television market], extra events are a big possibility.
“If they move them to the evening before then it would be a problem because you lose half a day of rest and recovery time. But I will be preparing to swim as much as possible.” (ESPN)
After upsetting American Michael Phelps for gold in the 200m fly, as well as snagging silver in the 100m fly at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Le Clos crashed he men’s 200m freestyle party in 2016.
At that edition of the Games in Rio, Le Clos finished with the silver in the 2free behind winner Sun Yang of China. Although the Capetown native missed the 200m fly podium in 4th, he did repeat as the men’s 100m fly silver medalist.
Le Clos was entered in 3 events at last year’s FINA World Aquatic Championships, adding the 100m free to his bread-and-butter 100m and 200m fly events. He earned bronze medals in the latter events but wound up not swimming the former.
The man is South Africa’s national record holder in the 200m free, owning a lifetime best of 1:45.20 from that aforementioned silver medal-worthy performance in Rio. For the 100m free, Le Clos represents his nation’s 3rd fastest performer all-time, possessing a PB of 48.15. That outing garnered him a silver medal, tying the reigning Olympic champion in the event, Kyle Chalmers of Australia.
No matter which event Le Clos may add to his double fly repertoire, he is in the same boat as most other swimmers in terms of having to stay mostly dry at the moment, although he does have a small pool at home that allows him to swim stationary via a tether.
But he says, “this is definitely not a break for me. As soon as I am allowed to train properly, I will jump straight back in the pool.”
100 breast!
It was exciting so I’m not complaining, but imo the reason his fly was off in Rio was because he swam the 200 free like an age grouper 3 times in a row.
He was fighting with everything he had to make it to the wall all 3 rounds in the 200 free, zero concern for energy management. There’s no way that doesn’t impact performance down the stretch.
In general, not sure why he’s now taking out races like an absolute madman. 23.5 to the feet in Rio 200 free final, 24.1 in 200 fly in Worlds last year are absolutely ridiculous, especially considering he’s not a raw sprinter in the mould of Dressel, Cavic etc. Back in 2012/2013, he got loads of success from backending his races like MP. I know you naturally lose endurance and back-end speed as you get older, but not sure that then justifies going all-out from the start in tough 200 races.
I can maybe understand doing this in finals, but it’s a complete waste of energy for someone of Le Clos’s talent to do this in heats and semis. He… Read more »
I think he suffered from poor, and at one point, almost no coaching. That’s changed now, so he isn’t going to be that aggressive. Whilst I agree that he didn’t need to go that hard in the heats and semi’s of the 200m free, he was probably just testing out his race plan. In the end it worked perfectly as he won the gold, as Sun will be stripped of it at some point in the future.
You don’t get the gold if the winner is stripped.
You’re also not a great racer if you can’t manage the heats and semis properly, that’s part of taking on a big program.
He hasn’t been with Graham for 3 years now and still takes races out with no control.
He’s fighting for scraps, like the rest of Dressel’s cannon fodder…
I guess Olympic medals are scraps now
While I wouldn’t call a medal “scraps”, Le Clos may be in tough to make the podium at the Olympics. Dressel and Milak if at their best are the favourites in 100 and 200fly by a mile, and Milak is a good bet to medal in the 100 as well. Whoever the 2nd American is will also be in the fight, plus Guy, maybe Schooling and several others that could go 50.xx. 200fly has Seto as well, who has been on absolute fire, plus another year for Urlando to improve.
He is a fantastic racer though, so I have no doubt he’ll be in the fight.
At 27,this is the age where swimmers tend to drop events instead of adding them. I don’t know if it’s wise to add something else. 200 free and that hurts the 200 fly. I’d argue that already did hurt him in 2016 by taking the 2 free out in a 23.5.
I mean, the only non-fly events he could realistically threaten in are 200free and 200IM right? 48.1 is a good 100 free time, but he needs to take a serious step forward to contend there. And 400IM is probably not a good fit, as I don’t see him being a threat ranging from 100fly up to 400IM like MP used to do (his speed and endurance probably won’t both stay at a high enough level).
With his raw speed and fast 200 PB, I think 47 mid would be very realistic for him at his peak. The problem is how congested that event has become.
It’s insane how competitive that event is worldwide. Very congested, to the point where medal contenders could flop in semi-finals if they don’t bring their best.
Even in 2016 Adrian almost didn’t go to semifinal
I mean, the only non-fly events he could really threaten in are
Best flyer in history for combined distances, courses. (of course Phelps rarely swam short course anything, though doubt he would have been as dominant in SCY or SCM as LCM).
Phelps is a weird one. Of course his underwaters were sensational, but his turns themselves were rather sluggish. He often attributed this to his long arms and tall frame, which meant he couldn’t actually “rotate” as quickly as he’d like.
He also had the strength and endurance to push through that 35 – 50m segment in the big pool where short course swimmers tend to struggle.