Chad Le Clos celebrates 21st Commonwealth Games medal

Evergreen Chad Le Clos made Commonwealth Games history in Glasgow on Wednesday night by capturing an unprecedented 21st career medal.

The 2012 Olympic 200m butterfly champion swam the 100m fly leg of the medley relay to help teammates Pieter Coetzé (backstroke), Michael Houlie (breastsroke) and Ruard van Renen (freestyle) capture the bronze medal in a 3min 31.13sec African record.

Coetzé clocked an incredible 51.71 Games record in the opening backstroke leg, the second-fastest 100m backstroke ever. Houlie completed the breaststroke leg in 59.41 and then Le Clos dived in with South Africa just in the lead.

Le Clos clocked 51.27, but it wasn’t enough to hold off his Australian counterpart. Van Renen completed the relay with a 48.74 freestyle leg, which was enough to land South Africa’s 22nd swimming medal of the Games and Le Clos’s 21st.

Since winning the 200m butterfly gold at Delhi 2010 as an 18-year-old, Le Clos, now 34, has amassed seven golds, five silvers and nine bronzes.

Eleven came in individual events and 10 in relays.

All Le Clos’s gold medals came in individual events, with two individual silvers and two individual bronzes. Relays accounted for three silvers and seven bronzes

Le Clos won five medals at Delhi 2010, including two gold.

Then he matched Mark Spitz’s tally of seven at Glasgow 2014, with two gold, one silver and four bronze.

Le Clos won five gongs at Gold Coast 2018 which included the butterfly treble with gold in the 50m, 100m and 200m events.

Le Clos secured only one medal at Birmingham 2022, the 200m fly silver, but that saw him equal the then all-time record of 18 that had been held by two shooters, Phillip Adams of Australia and Englishman Mick Gault.

However, Australian star Emma McKeon quickly overhauled him at that gala, pushing the mark to 20.

Glasgow 2026 has been all about the relays for Le Clos, who missed out on silverware in the 50m and 100m butterfly races.

Le Clos swam a great anchor leg in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay on the opening night of Glasgow 2026, clocking the fastest time of the team, 48.29, to help South Africa to bronze.

Then he swam in the heats to help get the mixed 4x100m medley team into the final, where he was replaced, although his contribution still earned him the silver they won.

And then the men’s 4x100m medley on Wednesday.

It’s a fitting achievement for a swimmer with such longevity. He burst onto the global stage when he stunned Michael Phelps to win the 200m butterfly gold at the 2012 London Olympics.

Two 100m fly silvers at 2012 and Rio 2016 as well as a 200m freestyle silver in Brazil made him South Africa’s most decorated Olympian, being surpassed by Tatjana Smith at Paris 2024 with two golds and two silvers.

Le Clos’s career overlapped that of breaststroke star Cameron van der Burgh, but despite having the strongest middle 200m of a medley relay in the world, South Africa wasn’t able to field podium-level medley relay teams at the Olympics because they lacked a backstroker or a freestyler or both.

Otherwise his Olympic haul could have been higher.

But South Africa’s relays have been more competitive at the Commonwealth Games and Le Clos has capitalised — and contributed — to the fullest.

If Le Clos can make it to the 2028 Los Angeles Games he will become the first South African to get to five Olympics.

Glasgow is his fifth Commonwealth Games, a rare feat but not the first. Freestyle sprint star Roland Schoeman competed at Kuala Lumpur 1998, Manchester 2002, Melborune 2005, Delhi and in Glasgow 12 years ago, winning a total of 12 medals.

Le Clos’s Commonwealth Games medals

Individual

Gold (7)

200m butterfly: Delhi 2010, Glasgow 2014, Gold Coast 2018

100m butterfly: Glasgow 2014, Gold Coast 2018

50m butterfly: Gold Coast 2018

400m individual medley: Delhi 2010

Silver (2)

100m freestyle: Gold Coast 2018

200m butterfly: Birmingham 2022

Bronze (2)

200m individual medley: Glasgow 2014

50m butterfly: Glasgow 2014

Relay

Silver (3)

Men’s 4x100m medley: Delhi 2010

Men’s 4x100m freestyle: Glasgow 2014

Mixed 4x100m medley: Glasgow 2026

Bronze (7)

Men’s 4x100m freestyle: Delhi 2010, Glasgow 2026

Men’s 4x200m freestyle: Delhi 2010, Glasgow 2014

Men’s 4x100m medley: Glasgow 2014, Gold Coast 2018, Glasgow 2026