Dubai: Olympic 200-metre butterfly gold medallist Chad Le Clos is targeting a historic butterfly hat-trick at the Fina Short Course World Championships in Doha, Qatar, next month.
The 22-year-old South African is coming off the back of a record 27 wins in 27 races in the seven-stage Fina/Mastbank Swimming World Cup series, which finished in Singapore on Sunday, but he’s already looking ahead to December 3 and 4, when he hopes to reign supreme in the 50, 100 and 200-metre butterfly events.
“I’m really excited for Doha,” Le Clos said on the sidelines of the launch of his new surf clothing launch at Dubai’s Atlantis, The Palm, on Monday.
“I believe I can swim close to the world record in a few butterflys and maybe get them, that’s my goal, to win all three and make history again — and be the first man to win the triple.
“To win the 50-metre, 100-metre and 200-metre butterfly would be really hard, especially given the big sprinters in the 50-metres, but I believe I can do it.
“To do that would be huge. I’m all about leaving a legacy behind and trying to cement myself as one of the greats. I don’t just want to be remembered as the guy who beat Michael Phelps at the 2012 London Olympics — a one-hit wonder — I want to be an inspiration to the kids.”
Off the back of his record 27 wins in the World Cup series, which started in Doha in August and passed through Dubai at the beginning of September before wrapping up in Singapore this week after also visiting Hong Kong, Moscow, Beijing and Tokyo, Le Clos said he was confident.
“It could have gone either way but, when I won my first three events and the 100-metre freestyle for the first time, that gave me a lot of confidence,” he said.
“From there I started picking up wins in the individual medleys that I’m usually not known for winning and the 50-metre freestyle, which is bizarre for me to even enter.
“That’s when it hit me that, after 13 or 14 wins, I thought: ‘hang on, I’m nearly halfway, I can do this the whole way undefeated’. I’m always looking to create history in one way or another, no one’s ever done that before in a World Cup series, and I’m just proud to say that I could do it.”
Le Clos said he only doubted his ability to finish the season undefeated once in Beijing, where he was up against the world’s best sprinters in the 50-metre freestyle.
“I thought I had lost because I was a little bit behind, but I managed to win by three-hundredths of a second. I celebrated that one like it was an Olympics, from there I was 20 for 20, and could seriously consider doing the whole thing unbeaten. It just snowballed from there.”
For now, Le Clos just has to ward off possible post-World Cup fatigue and stay fit for Doha.
“It’s a very up and down sport, one week you can be winning and the next week you can lose, you just have to be on your toes the whole time and stay focused. But I feel very confident I can deliver, it’s two years after London and two years before Rio [for the 2016 Olympics]. We’ll be able to gauge where everyone is at and hopefully I’ll be able to stamp my authority.”
