Chad Le Clos will represent South Africa at a fourth successive Olympic Games as he leads a reduced roster of eight swimmers for Paris 2024.
It has been twelve years since Chad Le Clos stunned the swimming world by touching out Michael Phelps in the final of the Men’s 200m Butterfly at the London 2012 Olympic Games. At the time Phelps was a fourteen-time Olympic gold medallist, Olympic & World Record holder in the event, and was aiming to win the same event at three successive Olympic Games for the first time.
Le Clos was already a short course world champion and Commonwealth Games champion in the event, but was also just twenty years-old and routinely swimming times four to five seconds outside Phelps’ world mark. However in a race, and final metre, that has since become Olympic folklore, Le Clos shattered his personal best of 1:54.43 set in the semi-finals to touch in 1:52.96, edging out legend Phelps by 0.05.
While Le Clos couldn’t emulate that gold medal winning race at Rio 2016 or Tokyo 2020, with a career-haul of one gold and three silver medals at the summer Olympics he remains South Africa’s most decorated Olympian of all-time. In Paris Le Clos will race just the 100m Butterfly, lining up alongside teammate Matthew Sates who has qualified for the 100m and 200m Butterfly double, and the 200m Individual Medley.
Sates is the reigning world short course champion in the 200m Individual Medley from Melbourne 2022, and has enjoyed an almost unprecedented amount of success at World Cup level, however is still chasing a long course World Championships or Olympic Games medal.
Backstroker Pieter Coetze is the third and final male swimmer named on the South African team for Paris and has just posted a career-best time in the 200m Backstroke at the recent South African National Championships. The 20 year-old went even faster than his Doha 2024 bronze medal winning time at the national championships and throws himself into the mix over the four laps in what will likely be a congested top ten qualifiers list for the Paris games.
The women’s roster is headlined by defending 200m Breaststroke Olympic champion Tatjana Smith (nee Schoemaker), who at Tokyo 2020 became South Africa’s first female gold medallist in the pool since Penelope Heyns won the same event at Atlanta 1996. The world record breaking swim was also the nation’s only gold medal across all Olympic sports at Tokyo 2020.
Smith missed the World Aquatics Championships at Budapest 2022, and when returning to the claim her maiden world title at Fukuoka a year later, she told World Aquatics it had been a ‘tough two years since the Olympics’. She now appears to be hitting her stride again heading into the Paris games after posting the third fastest 200m Breaststroke in history at the recent South African National Championships.
Aimee Canny (200m Freestyle), Kaylene Corbett (200m Breaststroke), and Erin Gallagher (100m Breaststroke) round out the South African team of eight swimmers – down from a team of fifteen that raced at Tokyo 2020.