Chad le Clos’ father Bert took to Twitter to express his delight after his son won a silver medal in the 200m freestyle at the Rio Olympics.
Bert le Clos shot to fame during the 2012 London Olympics following his emotional interview with the BBC after watching Chad beat Michael Phelps to win gold in the 200m butterfly.
With tears streaming down his face, Bert blurted out “Unbelievable” several times, and one of his most memorable lines was “Just look at him, he’s such a beautiful boy!”.
But times have been tough in the Le Clos household in recent months as both Bert and his wife Geraldine have been fighting cancer.
Chad released a statement shortly before the Rio Olympics when he announced his parents’ situation, and he said that he hoped that they would be able to make it to Rio to cheer him on again.
And true to form, Bert and Geraldine were at poolside at the Olympic Aquatic Centre on Monday night, where Le Clos claimed a silver medal in the 200m freestyle behind China’s Sun Yang, and then about an hour later raced in his favourite 200m butterfly semi-final.
Le Clos nearly pulled off a gold medal, and in the end, winning silver in the 200m freestyle was a stunning outcome as he clinched Team South Africa’s second medal. “So proud of my boy tonight #Silver #UNBELIEVABLE @chadleclos” Bert tweeted with a picture of him alongside Geraldine.
Butterfly specialist Le Clos had entered the freestyle event as an almost wildcard, hoping that he can produce an upset for a medal, even gold.
He just scraped into the final, having qualified as the seventh-fastest athlete after the semis as he admitted that he went out too quickly at the start. Le Clos led up to the 150-metre mark, and faded to fifth in his semi-final, but luckily it was enough for him to have a chance to get another Olympic medal.
Le Clo shocked the rest of the field in the final as well, streaking away from the field to be on world-record pace after the first 50m, and maintained his lead over the next 100m.
undefinedBut China’s controversial figure Sun Yang soon made his presence felt, and eventually caught Le Clos with about 25m to go, and it looked like the South African may suffer a similar fate to his semi-final and fade away substantially.
The resolute 24-year-old from Durban, though, was not giving up without a fight, and clawed his way back to touch the wall in second in a new South African and African record of 1:45.20, earning the third Olympic medal of his career.
Freestyle specialist Sun Yang claimed the gold in 1:44.65, his sixth Olympic medal and second in Rio after he won silver in the 400m freestyle, while American Conor Dwyer took the bronze in 1:45.23. World record-holder Paul Biedermann of Germany ended sixth in 1:45.84.
Just an hour later, Le Clos was back in the pool for the semi-final in his favourite 200m butterfly event, where he came face-to-face with his great rival Michael Phelps.
Phelps, as usual, started fast, with Le Clos keeping up with the American in second place. But both faded over the final 50 metres, with Hungarian Tamas Kenderesi winning the second semi-final in 1:53.96, with Phelps second in 1:54.12 and Le Clos third in 1:55.19.
But Le Clos did what he needed to, and a thrilling final can be expected on Wednesday morning at 3.28am SA time. Hungarian veteran Laszlo Cseh won the first semi-final in 1:55.18.
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Independent Media