Chad Le Clos

South African swimming legend Chad le Clos became South Africa’s most decorated Olympian in 2016 at the Rio Summer Olympic Games. The inspirational swimmer took the world by storm when he became Olympic, World and Commonwealth Champion and also won the prestigious title of FINA World Swimmer of the Year. His numerous achievements include winning the overall title in the Swimming World Cup four times – the first male to achieve this feat. In 2018 he became the most decorated Commonwealth swimmer of all time with a remarkable 17 medals in total.
The same year he achieved the Guinness World Record for the “most gold medals won in the FINA Swimming World Cup by a male swimmer”, after winning 143 gold medals from 2009 until 2018.

Born in Durban, South Africa, the swimmer’s first love was football, but it was swimming where he dominated and his determination to win and competitive nature shone through from an early age. His potential was spotted by his primary school teacher and he began swimming competitively by age 10. Four years later he had already made the senior Olympic squad, and by the time he was 18 he held two senior South African records.

Le Clos first put the world on notice at London 2012 when he beat his hero Michael Phelps to win the gold medal in the 200m butterfly in one of the stand out performances of the Games. Since then the South African has continuously added to his remarkable medal tally.