{"id":13022,"date":"2012-08-01T01:51:03","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T23:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/olympics-swimming-le-clos-beat-phelps-at-own-game\/"},"modified":"2012-08-01T01:51:03","modified_gmt":"2012-07-31T23:51:03","slug":"olympics-swimming-le-clos-beat-phelps-at-own-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/olympics-swimming-le-clos-beat-phelps-at-own-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympics-Swimming-Le Clos beat Phelps at own game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Rosalba O’Brien<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON, July 31<\/span> (Reuters) – Sobbing on the top of the
\npodium, South Africa’s Chad Le Clos looked like he could hardly
\nbelieve that he had not only won a gold medal but beaten his
\nhero Michael Phelps to do so.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Le Clos stole the 200 metres butterfly title from Phelps in
\nthe dying seconds, just getting to the wall 0.05 seconds before
\nthe American on Tuesday and the outcome was ironic, given
\nPhelps’ famous ability to execute masterful finishes.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I felt like him, swimming that last 50 I felt like I was
\nPhelps,” said Le Clos. “I always wanted to swim in an Olympic
\nGames and I wanted to be like him.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I always remembered Phelps coming off the last wall
\nstrongly, using that momentum, so that’s what I tried to do.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Phelps, who sealed his legacy on Tuesday with a record 19th
\nOlympic medal, praised Le Clos’ performance, describing him as
\n“a very, very good competitor, a very hard working kid, a very
\nhungry kid”.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Le Clos’ surprise win came hot on the heels of a gold for
\nhis compatriot Cameron Van der Burgh, who broke the breaststroke
\nworld record on Sunday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the South African relay team finished outside the
\nmedals in both the 4×100 and 4×200 freestyle, the two individual
\ngolds will give the African nation hope that its swimming
\nprogramme is undergoing a renaissance.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The South Africans took three medals in Athens but was
\ndisappointed to go home empty-handed from Beijing and the
\n20-year-old Le Clos said the future looked positive, with a
\ngroup of young athletes waiting in the wings.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rosalba O’Brien LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) – Sobbing on the top of the podium, South Africa’s Chad Le Clos looked like he could hardly believe that he had not only won a gold medal but beaten his hero Michael Phelps to do so. Le Clos stole the 200 metres butterfly title from Phelps in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}