Chad le Clos Parts Ways With Longtime Coach Graham Hill

Photo Courtesy: Fabio Ferrari - LaPresse

South Africa’s King of Butterfly Chad le Clos announced today via Twitter his separation from long-time coach Graham Hill.

Le Clos, now 24 years old, first started swimming for Hill when he was just 8 years old, experiencing an unbelievable amount of success under Hill’s tutelage. The South African star quickly became a skilled butterflyer, even taking down the GOAT himself, Michael Phelps, in finals of the men’s 200 butterfly at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

He earned gold medals in both the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly at the 2013 World Championships, repeating his 100-meter butterfly performance at the 2015 World Championships.

At this year’s Olympic Games in Rio le Clos made a name for himself in the 200-meter freestyle when he grabbed the silver medal with a time of 1:45.20, which now stands as a South African record. Despite finishing off the podium in the 200-meter butterfly, le Clos rebounded to finish in a historical three-way tie with Phelps and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary.

Hill has been named South Africa’s “Coach of the Year” on numerous occasions and has served on the South African coaching staff at the Summer Olympic Games since 2000. He is currently the head coach of the Seagulls Swimming Club in Durban.

Life's a journey, time to lead mine. Thanks @grahamhill196 for EVERYTHING. Excited for the future- full statement: https://t.co/c9Vkj8CLWs

— Chad Le Clos (@chadleclos) September 15, 2016

Read le Clos’ full statement on his separation from Hill below:

Graham Hill has done a great job as my coach for 14 years. We have achieved a lot together at every level of the sport: The Olympics, The World Championships, The Commonwealth Games and The FINA World Cups.

However, having considered everything, I have decided to end our agreement and will now start looking to find a new structure for 2017.

For the rest of the 2016 season, I will work by myself. Every athlete has to take responsibility for his or her own career and I feel ready to try a different approach.

I would like though to thank Graham for all his hard work, his advice and his friendship. I’ve been fortunate to have one of the best swimming coaches in the world living so close to my family home here in Durban. It has been an incredible journey together and he and his family will always remain good friends.

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Bill Bell

7 years ago

Wonder if that guy in Tempe has any pool lanes avaikable for a couple of former World Champions, one of whom happens to be an Olympuc gold- medalist?