Wentworth swimmers learn inside tips from Olympian medallist Chad le Clos
Four-times Olympic medallist Chad le Clos treated swimmers from Wentworth's Olive Tree Swimming Club to an exclusive training clinic at the Kings Park Pool, at the weekend.
The initiative was part of the launch of the Chad le Clos Foundation’s activities for the year ahead, with plans to conduct clinics on a regular basis across South Africa.
Le Clos is in the city for the SA Short Course Championships where he qualified in four events for the World Champs set for Budapest, later this year.
Le Clos teamed up with coach Wayne Riddin at the clinic.
"This is what I love to do, just being with them in the water and helping them a little bit really brings me joy. This is just the start of many great things to come. We started small but we’re really going to scale this up big time next year. We just want to give back and make sure we’re doing the right things and making sure it’s enjoyable and encouraging for them," Le Clos said.
Sixteen-year-old Jesse Smith, a young swimmer at the clinic, said it was fun and educational.
"It was very useful for going forward in swimming. I was very excited to meet Chad because I’ve never met anyone famous – he’s an Olympic swimmer and he’s very good and also from South Africa, so that makes it very special.
“I learned that even the smallest changes in swimming make big differences in your time and how fast you are, so my technique definitely got sharpened," Jesse said.
Olive Tree Swimming Club coach, Lucia Ruiters, founded the club to get children off the streets by getting them into sport.
"We were so excited to meet Chad. I’ve had restless nights for two days because this is like a dream. One of the girls was actually shaking, the other one said ‘pinch me’, so it’s really a big thing for us because we’ve watched Chad over the years and we admired him swimming so powerfully.
"We really feel blessed and honoured to be associated with him. I really feel it’s going to get us to the next level of swimming. I feel that we will get the next Chad from our club and we will have children coming out, swimming different levels, swimming very well and making a difference," Ruiters said.
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