South African Chad Le Clos will compete in the same three individual events at the upcoming World Championships as he did at the 2016 Olympic Games: the 100 fly, 200 fly, and 200 free. Provisional entries have been released on the FINA app.
The most surprising race left off Le Clos’ schedule is the 50 fly, an event in which he’s a two-time short course World Champion. He did compete in the event two years ago at the 2015 Championships in Kazan, failing to make the final in 14th place.
The 100 free is another event we could’ve seen him in. Shortly after those 2015 Championships Le Clos was a 48.16 at the Moscow World Cup, a time that would’ve finished 4th in Kazan. He then showed incredible front-end speed in the 200 free at the Olympics, indicating he’d be capable of getting under 48 seconds if he gave the event a go. But alas, the semi-finals of the 100 free will take place just minutes prior to the 200 fly final, an event the 2012 Olympic gold medalist will be focusing on after having lost both his World and Olympic titles in 2015 and 2016.
Le Clos also competed in the 200 and 400 IM at the London Games, but has gravitated away from those events over the years, despite qualifying for the final in both (he scratched the 200 final to focus on the 100 fly). He could also potentially be apart of four relays, with South Africa fielding a team in both the men’s and mixed 4×100 free and 4×100 medley. However, he didn’t swim either of the South African relays in Rio and was on 1 of a possible 6 at the SC World Championships in December.
He has a lot of potential and he should do great at World Championships ???
Schooling has a chance to medal in 50 and 200 fly too.
200 fly?
With Kenderesi, Sakai, Le Clos, Conger, Pace Clark etc, I don’t see how it’s possible.
I am interested in how he performs with a new coach and program. first time not training with Graham. did he just want to mix it up and try something new or did he not want to do the work anymore?
He said he’d just been training with Graham his whole life, and that he just wanted a change. I don’t think it was performance based or that there were any negative feelings.
I have to assume he is selfish by not participating in relays. A 48.1 Free and 50.4 Fly would be extremely helpful on either relay.
It would help, but SA doesn’t have any realistic medal chances that I know of on the relays, Chad or no. On the other hand, while the relays would be faster, they might affect his ability to medal individually.. So thinking in terms of national pride (aka medal count), it’s better for the team if he does not participate in relays.
If they had a solid freestyler they actually have a good shot at a bronze but they don’t have one other than Le Clos and he needs to swim fly on the relay
Well, now Schooling has a shot to final in the 50 fly.
schooling was the favorite all along, he is after all, the best butterflyer in the world right now.
Not the number ranked current time in any event. I suppose you’re talking about the 100 LCM fly, which is one event in one course. He’s not competitive in the 200 fly, which is why he doesn’t even attempt it. He was beaten in the SCY 100 fly. LeClos from 50-200 is the current best flyer in all courses.
And Cseh.
Correct. LeClos and Cseh are the two beat flyers in the world. As someone said, Schooling is Cavic without a world’s best 50 fly.
Schooling is an Olympic Champion for 100 fly but Cavic has no Olympic gold in his resume. so u cant say he is Cavic without 50 fly.
Just to give credit where it’s due, he did drop an unrested 1:56 at the Atlanta PSS.
Lilaswimmer is a troll.
I have to inform you that Schooling made the 50fly final in Kazan while Chad didn’t.
Cseh won Gold, Silver, and Bronze there (200,100,50).
Just add total best times of 50-100-200 LCM fly. Schooling is not competitive with Cseh or LeClos across all three distances. He has a Tom Shields 200 LCM fly.
He made the final in 2015 in kazan
Love to see him racing 200 free- but 3 rounds of the go hard then die strategy may take a toll on him for the rest of the meet
He won’t need to. There was no reason he had to do a 1:45 high in the first round at Rio. That cost him, as you said.
Is he still gonna shadow box before he races?
I wonder if he still has his nightmares
I think Haas could give a good Phelps face in response.
I would highly respect Chad if he was humble, and not so arrogant.
Of if he said he had a virus and that’s why he lost. Or that he really hadn’t trained and that’s why he lost.