‘I’m a dog. I’ll be in the mix’ — Le Clos still has unfinished business to settle in Paris

There’s a smattering of media and volunteers standing in the mixed zone in the Olympic Park aquatics centre while the evening session is in progress.

We’ve worked our way through the men’s 100m freestyle semifinals, the men’s 200m breaststroke semifinals, but now is the big one.

Some crane their necks to get a glimpse of the pool, obstructed by the throng of cameras and TV media, waiting to interview the winner of the men’s butterfly gold medal. That would be Michael Phelps, surely? The American is regarded as swimming’s GOAT, and perhaps even the greatest-ever Olympian.

He’s unbeaten in the event for the past 11 years and he’ll take off from lane six, with a 20-year-old South African ball of energy to his left, in lane five.

What happens next is the stuff of sporting legend. With one last lunge to the wall, Chad Le Clos causes one of the greatest upsets in Olympic swimming history.

Michael Phelps celebrates winning joint silver with Chad le Clos in the 100m butterfly final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on 12 August 2016. (Photo: Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)

Michael Phelps shakes hands with Chad le Clos after they finished first and tied for second respectively in the 100m butterfly final at the London 2012 Olympics. (Photo: EPA / Barbara Walton)

He wins the gold medal in a time of 1min 52.96sec. It is an African record and still ranks as the fastest Le Clos has swum in the event.

Pandemonium breaks out. In the stands, the youngster’s father, Bert, screams “Unbelievable!” live on BBC. In the mixed zone, there’s chaos.

Media are rushing in, trying to find a spot against the temporary railings that separate the swimmers from the press as they walk past on their way to the warm-down pool. There’s no place to hide.

There’s only eyes for Phelps, and Le Clos. Even bronze medallist Takeshi Matsuda passes through unnoticed. Then, Phelps enters. There’s a scrum and microphones and mobiles are thrust in his direction.

He doesn’t respond. However, he does stop to watch the replay on a TV monitor. His mouth is wide open as he gawks at the final metres of the race for gold. He walks away, speechless.

Passing the torch

An eternity later Le Clos enters. He is mobbed by the media and he takes his time to speak to them. Articulate, handsome and gifted, he’s a marketing dream. The king is dead, long live the king.

After the swimmers have warmed down and the competition is over on this Tuesday evening, the last day in July 2012, Le Clos, dressed in his Team SA tracksuit, is approached by Phelps. He’s hurting, but classy.

“I’m passing the torch to you now, enjoy the moment. I’m going to be watching your career.” They shake hands.

Le Clos’s life, as he knew it, had changed forever. At the time he told the media: “I had swum that race over in my mind a million times before. I swam the race like Phelps, I felt that I was Phelps in the last 50m.”

That was then, this is now.

Winner Chad Le Clos and second-placed Michael Phelps compete in the 200m butterfly final at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Photo: EPA / Patrick B Kraemer)

Chad le Clos celebrates winning the 200m butterfly final at the 2012 London Olympics. (Photo: EPA)

Le Clos arrived in Paris as South Africa’s greatest-ever Olympian. That mantle has now switched to Tatjana Smith and she gets his approval.

“I’m glad for her. She’s also home-grown. We’ve got three 50m pools in South Africa and we’ve produced four Olympic champions since 1996. I told (her coach) Rocco and Tatjana in 2019 that she’d do what she’s doing. She’s a lovely person. She’s too good for these girls, she’s like Phelps.”

Ah, Phelps. That GOAT was slayed by the precocious kid from South Africa 12 years ago. A win that sparked a frenzy that Le Clos wasn’t prepared for.

“At the time I was bigger than Siya Kolisi is now,” he says.

Having beaten Phelps, Le Clos was in huge demand, as was his father who himself has become an overnight celebrity. Before returning to a heroes’ welcome in South Africa Le Clos stopped off at Chelsea FC (despite being a Man United fan) and raced some of the youngsters at their pool in Cobham.

He met Omega ambassador George Clooney and was handed an impressive timepiece to wear on his left wrist. Le Clos, as his former coach remarked, “could be the Tiger Woods of swimming”.

Reflecting on those dizzying weeks in 2012, Le Clos says: “I wasn’t supposed to win that race.

“If we had swum that race 100 times, if we could replay it like a Fifa game, Phelps would win it 97, 98 times. Then again, in 2016, I’d win that 200m freestyle 95 out of 100 times. I should have two golds and two silvers. That race still haunts me. I hate myself for that race.

“Plus, the gold medallist (Sun Yang) is a drug cheat. He’s been banned for doping. But, swimming is full of politics. His country is a lot bigger than South Africa. It would take a lot for the authorities to strip him and hand me the gold.”

Chad le Clos with his 200m butterfly gold medal at the 2012 Games in London. (Photo: Al Bello / Getty Images)

Overachieved

Given that Le Clos had won five medals at the 2010 Youth Olympics, followed by five at that year’s Commonwealth Games, and then upstaged Phelps in London (he also took silver behind the American in 2012), some might argue that he has underachieved and should be in Paris with more than four medals from his Olympic career.

He sits forward in his chair, rubs the palm of his hand with his thumb. You know what’s coming next.

“I’ve always wanted to go down as the best. Have I underachieved? No. I’ve overachieved. Let’s play this back. From 2012 I overachieved. I beat Phelps. I had the world at my feet. I followed up by winning double gold at the 2013 world championships.

“At the 2014 Commonwealth Games I won seven medals. In 2015 at the world champs I won gold and silver. At Rio 2016 the silver should have been gold. In 2017 I was world champ again and at the 2018 Commonwealth Games I won five medals.

“I’ve also won 20 world short-course championship medals, the second-most in the history of swimming. Only Ryan Lochte has won more and I need three more medals (or two gold) to overtake him as short-course swimming GOAT.

“Then you have Phelps and myself as swimming’s two GOATS. How could that be underachieving?

“I think people tend to look at the Olympics every four years and forget everything else. As I said, with respect, I’m a pensioner. I know I’ll have to make a decision as to when to stop, but my immediate future after Paris is breaking Lochte’s all-time record at the world short-course championships in Budapest in December.

“Then, it would be the 2026 Commonwealth Games. I’ve already won 18 medals there, even more than Ian Thorpe. Who knows what happens after that?”

Chad le Clos celebrates winning gold in the 200m butterfly final at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Photo: Adam Pretty / Getty Images)

Hardened warrior

It’s a hardened warrior sitting across from me, a world away from when he first burst onto the scene in 2010.

After he won the 200m butterfly at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games, a sign of what was to come two years later, he went into the bowels of the swimming arena to be dope tested.

He and the tester got lost and they had to walk outside the building to do the necessary. Cameron van der Burgh, older and who was to also win gold in London in 2012, halted him and said: “Why are you wearing flip-flops? They’re bad for you as a swimmer, you need to wear sliders or takkies.”

Le Clos never stopped learning, soaking up advice and improving. Now he’s the one dishing out the life lessons.

In Paris he has been taking the opportunity to soak up his fourth Games. If there’s any pressure on him to perform, that’s coming from himself.

No one else is expecting him to be on the podium, and even the final might be considered a long shot. Le Clos has been there, done that, collected all the T-shirts and pins and deserves to be given a lap of honour.

He’s also a leader within the team and an elder statesman who deserves every accolade. He doesn’t have to prove himself to anyone.

“As a boy I never dreamed of going to the Olympic Games,” he says. “To be here representing the country again, wearing the green and gold, honestly, there’s no higher honour than that for me,” he said.

“In London I was such a green boy. Then came Rio and that was followed by the Covid Olympics. Now, it’s Paris. It’s bittersweet though. I suffered a shoulder tear four weeks ago when a kid jumped on me when I was swimming and my shoulder popped out.

“It will have recovered but the inflammation and damage done has affected me. Three weeks ago, I was crying every day.

Read more: Olympic Games Paris 2024

“I’ll be devastated if I can’t compete… it will be one of the worst moments in my career,” he says. “I’ve put so much into it. I’m now 32, a ballie, a pensioner in swimming terms. My body feels like it’s 40.

“I’ve bled for this sport, bled for my country. I’m a patriot. I’ve been written off so many times, but I can assure you, if my shoulder holds up, I’ll make that final and then watch out. I’m a dog. I don’t crumble under the lights or pressure. I’ll be in the mix. Quote me on that.

“I’m still good, I’m still good enough to win races, titles and medals. Whether it happens here we’ll see. If not it will happen going forward.

“I’m still leaving it all out here. I moved to Germany to prepare for these Olympics. With respect, I don’t like the place. It’s not for me, do you know what I mean? I’m a South African, I’m a patriot. I thrive when surrounded by South Africans.”

In all honesty, there’s still a lot more that we haven’t touched on, deliberately. We’ll do that when Le Clos packs away his goggles for the last time. That’s not now.

It really has been an unbelievable swimming career.

Ah, unbelievable. Where have we heard that before? DM

Gary Lemke is in Paris as part of Team SA.