{"id":20525,"date":"2024-07-31T12:24:05","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T12:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/olympic-swimming-chad-le-clos-primed-for-paris-after-treading-dark-path\/"},"modified":"2024-07-31T12:24:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T12:24:07","slug":"olympic-swimming-chad-le-clos-primed-for-paris-after-treading-dark-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/olympic-swimming-chad-le-clos-primed-for-paris-after-treading-dark-path\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic swimming: Chad le Clos primed for Paris after treading &#8216;dark path&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Le Clos is hoping to improve on his performances in Toyko, where he finished fifth in the 200m butterfly and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/africa\/58010360\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">failed to reach the semi-finals of the 100m.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cIt was actually a very successful Games considering what I went through,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cThe truth is Toyko was really difficult because Covid derailed me. I went on a darker path and without being with my team for nine, 10 months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cA couple things happened outside the pool which changed the path of my life, to the negative. It took me a while to get myself out of that &#8211; almost two years &#8211; to get back to where Chad was supposed to be, mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Le Clos, who won his first global titles in 2010, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/africa\/62377038\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">first spoke of his mental struggles in 2022<\/a> after clinching a record-equalling 18th medal at the Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It took professional support, including psychology sessions, to \u201crebuild\u201d himself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cLife is a lot harder now than it was 12 years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cThere was no expectation &#8211; the problems come when you realise what\u2019s really on the line, in some respects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cI swam for my family, my coach and my country. And then Rio (2016) came along and I got pulled in 100 directions [with] sponsors and pressure from the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cI think I\u2019m trying to bring myself back to that youngster that was just happy and grateful to be there, to be in the arena. Racing the best in the world is what I truly love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is fair to ask, then, whether competing at these Olympics in Paris was ever in doubt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cNo, never,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cEven in my darkest moments, there was always a flicker of light. There were always moments where I believed that it was going to be ok.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cFinally, when I came out of this depression, I was swimming like I was in the past, and life became better in every sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/olympics\/articles\/cj7dvlyg42ro\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Le Clos is hoping to improve on his performances in Toyko, where he finished fifth in the 200m butterfly and failed to reach the semi-finals of the 100m. \u201cIt was actually a very successful Games considering what I went through,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe truth is Toyko was really difficult because Covid derailed me. I went [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20527,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20525\/revisions\/20527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}