Earning the double butterfly treble, Chad le Clos brought a topsy-turvy year to a climactic end at the Fina World Short-Course Championships in Windsor, Canada at the weekend.
Le Clos claimed a rare back-to-back clean sweep of the butterfly events at the global showpiece, touching first over the 50m, 100m, and 200m distances while adding the 200m freestyle silver medal.
The highlight of his championships was when he smashed his world record in the 100m butterfly, coming tantalisingly close to be the first swimmer to dip below 48 seconds in the event.
Chad le Clos hits the water on hi way to a new world record in the men’s 100m butterfly final at Short Course World Swimming Championships. Phoro: EPA
The performance ranked among one of the swimming sensation’s best in his career as he chopped 0.36ssec off his previous best to post a time of 48.08 seconds.
“I didn’t expect to go that fast. I would have taken a 48.6, 48.7 and just get the win but 48.0 is fantastic and I am very happy with that,” Le Clos told The Star.
He won the sprint butterfly event in a time of 21.98s ahead of America’s Tom Shields in second place in 22.40s with Australia’s David Morgan bagging the bronze in 22.47s.
Two years ago the double world-record holder became the first swimmer to win the 50m, 100m, and 200m butterfly titles in Doha while also winning the 200m freestyle gold.
This past week he almost repeated that feat but had to be content with the silver medal in the freestyle event after conceding the title to Korea’s Taehwan Park.
“In terms of my other performances I would say the Olympic gold in 2012 was obviously the best, maybe the fly treble in 2014 was second best and I would say this is definitely in the top three,” Le Clos said.
“The performance was huge for both my family and myself. In the 100 Tom had just broken the world record, and I knew it was going to be a tight race. There was a lot of hype and lot of pressure on that race and I think to bounce back like that was really good for me.”
Le Clos therefore put behind him a disappointing display at the Rio Olympics where he suffered a crushing defeat in his specialist 200m butterfly event to iconic American swimmer Michael Phelps.
Chad Le Clos, of South Africa, holds his gold medal during a medal ceremony for the men's 50-meter butterfly final at the FINA World Swimming Championships. Photo: David J. Phillip/AP
The South African missed out on a podium finish altogether but managed to pick himself up, sharing the silver medal in the 100m butterfly at the Games with Phelps and Hungarian swimmer Laszlo Cseh with Singapore’s Joseph Schooling claiming the title.
Le Clos surprised all and sundry when he opened his account in Rio by winning the 200m freestyle silver medal.
Buoyed by his performances in Canada, Le Clos seems to have found his mojo as he looks to complete his revival at next year’s World Long-Course Championships in Budapest.
“It’s been a long few months since Rio, and I am still disappointed. But I've redeemed myself with my performances here in Canada and I'm very happy.
“I’ve always said, 'judge when my back is against the wall' and I bounced back like a champion; that is important to me.”
It's been a tough year for the Le Clos family outside the pool and Chad revealed before the Games that his mother Geraldine had breast cancer which had returned since her remission in 2010 and had had a double mastectomy while his father, Bert had developed prostate cancer.
Meanwhile, the South African 4x50m freestyle relay team consisting of Le Clos, Brad Tandy, Doug Erasmus, and Eben Vorster finished in sixth place in the final clocking 1:25.61, just over a second behind Russia in first place.