South Africa's Chad le Clos competes in a heat of the men's 100m butterfly swimming event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Friday South Africa's Chad le Clos competes in a heat of the men's 100m butterfly swimming event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Friday. Photo: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP
South African swimming great Chad le Clos was eliminated from the Paris Olympics despite finishing second in his heat on Friday.
Nursing a shoulder injury, Le Clos, one of the most successful South African Olympians of all time, finished his men’s 100m butterfly heat in a time of 52:24.
🏊♂ Team SA Swimming Results 🏊♀
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Men's 100m Butterfly: Chad le Clos placed 2nd with a time of 52.24 while Matthew Sates finished 7th with a time of 54.53 in Heat 2.
Rebecca Meder placed 4th with a time of 2:11.96 in the Women's 200m Individual Medley in Heat 4.#TeamSA… pic.twitter.com/NeIssMfVVY
After all five heats were done, his time was not among the 16 fastest, ending his journey in Paris early.
Before the race, Le Clos revealed he was carrying a recent injury after a child jumped on his shoulder while he was in the pool four weeks ago.
Despite the injury, the 32-year-old, who described himself as a “pensioner” in swimming terms and in his fourth Olympics, vowed to compete in Paris, and continue bleeding for the country.
Le Clos famously pipped American great Michael Phelps to the 200m butterfly golf at the London games in 2012. He picked up a further silver in 2012, and went on to win two more silver medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games.
In the same heat as Le Clos on Friday, 21-year-old Matthew Sates was also eliminated after finishing seventh in a time of 54:53. Sates, a 200m individual medley gold medal winner at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, is thought to have a big future in the sport.
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