After Chad described 2021 to be the worst year of his life, he has come back strong and positive. So far, it’s been a great year as Le Clos has gone from strength to strength.
In April, he earned 4 medals at the South African National Championships and achieved a qualifying time for both the 2022 Commonwealth Games and World Aquatics Championships.
At the Commonwealth Games in late July, Le Clos took silver in the 200m Butterfly – a performance which marked a comeback of sorts after withdrawing from the World Aquatic Championships earlier in June due to bronchitis. The silver medal also brought his total number of medals won at the Commonwealth Games to 18 which tied the record for most decorated competitor at the Commonwealth Games across all sports.
In September, Chad announced Dirk Lange will become his new coach, joining his training camp in Frankfurt. This is to become Chad’s permanent training base in preparation for his fourth Olympics in Paris in 2024. Dirk has been Head Coach of the German National Training Centre, National Coaching Director & Head Coach, South Africa and German Swimming Federation (DSV) National Coach, as well as Head Coach High performance centre Graz (Austria). His training concept is based on individual strategies to identify and improve individual abilities of each athlete.
“Chad is an outstanding athlete with insane potential who has missed out a bit of the new development in swimming in the last two years,” Lange said. “We are now at the starting line of the first stage on the road to the 2024 Olympic Games. Each stage will have its own intermediate goals. It will be a long journey to Paris, and it will take some time to bring him back to the success he deserves.”
The last quarter of this year has seen Chad perform well at all 3 legs of the FINA Swimming World Cup. He earned two golds (100m and 200m Butterfly) and one silver (50m Butterfly) in Berlin; 2 silvers (50m and 200m Butterfly) and one gold (100m Butterfly) in Toronto and 2 golds (100m and 200m Butterfly) and one silver (50m Butterfly) in Indianapolis in November – winning nine medals in total to finish third overall following the final leg.
With one week to go until the FINA World Championships Short Course in Melbourne and knowing that Chad’s performance during the FINA World Cup series has been his fastest in 2 years, we are excited to see what the future holds for him.
