How Chad planned to beat Phelps

Gold medallist Chad le Clos (right) of South Africa poses with silver medallist Michael Phelps of the U.S. on the podium.

Gold medallist Chad le Clos (right) of South Africa poses with silver medallist Michael Phelps of the U.S. on the podium.

Published Aug 1, 2012

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The best Olympian in history sang the praises of South Africa’s newest Olym-pic gold medallist on Tuesday night. Michael Phelps would brook no excuses for losing to Chad le Clos in the 200m butterfly, a race he has dominated for a decade. This was not a race lost by Phelps, but won by Le Clos by five hundredths of a second.

“I watched the finish and Chad was there at the right time at the right place,” Phelps said after the race “He got his hand on the wall first. I’ve been able to get to know him over the past year and he is a very, very good competitor. He’s a very hard-working kid, a very hungry kid and, y’know, what do you say? He got his hand on the wall first.”

Le Clos got to the wall first with a dramatic final 50m that had been planned by himself and his coach, Graham Hill. They had worked on the final stretch as Le Clos is strong in the death of a race, when the oxygen has been sucked out of muscles, when the lactic acid is twisting your body into a mass of pain and when you should say enough.

“Watching all Michael’s races, I knew that he finished strong. He used his last underwater stroke to his advantage,” said Le Clos, then made an admission.

“It sounds crazy, but I actually thought I was Michael when I turned because I remember how he used to do it. When I turned, I turned that way and looked at him. It was like a trigger point where I just felt like I could try to do something special here. The last 25 metres just came in slo-mo and I just remember thinking to myself that my coach Graham had told me to keep it long, don’t shorten up. I remember thinking, ‘If I get there first he’s going to be happy’.”

Hill was more than happy. He looked stunned. Hill had been head coach when the ‘Awesome Foursome’ had won the 4x100m freestyle gold and broken the world record in Athens. Back then he had known that something special was on the cards. I asked him if he ever thought Le Clos might win gold. “Yeah.” When?

“After the heats,” said Hill. “It was just the way he looked. He was so easy in the heats and I was watching and I saw Michael look he was struggling through the meet so far. But I always knew he was going to be a tough competitor. The way Chad was swimming and looking so easy in butterfly. The turns were all good and everything was good.”

It was in the final turn that the magic happened.

“We’ve watched Michael race over the years and we know that he basically destroys his competitors on the final turn. We’ve worked on that, we’ve practised that final turn and the last 50m, and we’ve practised the last 15-20m,” Hill said.

Another part of the plan was to make Le Clos swim the final leg of the 4x200m in the morning’s session. Phelps rested during that session, but came back to claim gold with the United States team in the evening. South Africa finished seventh, which was about right as they had qualified seventh.

“The whole idea was to take his mind off the race,” Hill said.

“The condition he’s in, it wouldn’t have affected him at all. It probably worked in his favour to have a morning swim and then get ready for the evening. It took his mind off the final. It worked perfectly.”

On Wednedsay morning Le Clos, South Africa’s newest Olympic Champion, looked at his gold medal for the 200m butterfly, put on his Arena costume and went back to the Aquatics Centre to start it all over again. He still had more to come, but wasn’t sure how he would make sense of it all after what had happened last night.

“Just to be in the final for me was a great honour. My coach, Graham and I, came into these Olympic Games with expectations of just making the 400m medley and 200m butterfly finals, and then just racing and hopefully getting a medal. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I was really going to win the race. Very proud to be here and achieved what I have achieved.

“Right now it’s difficult to say how I’ll cope (for the rest of the meet). I have the 200m IM and the 100m ’fly and the medley relay. This was always my main event. I was gunning for this race right from the start. I think (Wednesday) will be very difficult. My goals are the same. Just to try and make the final and it will be a lot harder than it was (on Tuesday night). I wont have it as easy. I’ll just enjoy it like I have been doing all the time. “ – The Star

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