South Africa’s le Clos breaks Commonwealth Games medal record
Veteran South African swimmer Chad le Clos has won a 21st Commonwealth Games medal to overtake Australia’s Emma McKeon as the most decorated athlete in
Veteran South African swimmer Chad le Clos has won a 21st Commonwealth Games medal to overtake Australia’s Emma McKeon as the most decorated athlete in the Games’ history. The 34-year-old swam the butterfly leg as South Africa took bronze in the men’s 4×100 medley relay late on Wednesday, for his third of the 2026 Games after silver in the mixed 4×100 medley and bronze in the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay. His record tally is made up of seven golds, five silvers and nine bronzes across the last five Games, starting in Delhi in 2010 at the age of 18, where he earned five medals, and followed by seven medals in Glasgow in 2014.
He continued with five more on the Gold Coast in 2018 and one in Birmingham in 2022. “It was emotional, but I think those first two medals (in Glasgow 2026) were just a little bit more just because I had to get over the hump and tonight I just had to stay cool and bring it home,” he said after Wednesday’s relay. “The way the boys and girls swam … they swam their hearts out.
They kept saying ‘we’re doing this for Chad’ before they walked down, and it just means the world to me.” Le Clos is also an Olympic champion. He stunned the sporting world when he pipped Michael Phelps by 0.05 seconds to win the 200-metre butterfly gold at the 2012 London Games. At the time, American icon Phelps was a 14-time Olympic champion and had not lost in the event since 2001. Le Clos won medals at the Olympics in Rio in 2016 and has since competed in Tokyo and Paris.
He has said he hopes to qualify for his fifth Olympics in Los Angeles in two years.
The BriefWire