Swimmers from Olive Tree Swimming Club in Wentworth were invited to take part in an exclusive training clinic with four-time Olympic medallist Chad le Clos at the Kings Park Pool on Sunday.
Le Clos, currently in Durban for the SA Short Course Championships where he achieved qualifying times in four events for the World Championships in Budapest later this year, joined the young swimmers in the pool, teaming up with coach Wayne Riddin to inspire the next generation of aspiring Olympians.
“This is what I love to do, just being with them in the water and helping them a little bit really brings me joy,” said Le Clos afterwards.
The initiative was part of the launch of the Chad le Clos Foundation’s activities for the year ahead with plans to conduct clinics on a regular basis across South Africa.
“This is just the start of many great things to come,” explained the 32-year-old star. “We started small but we’re really going to scale this up big time next year. We just want to give back and make sure we’re doing the right things and making sure it’s enjoyable and encouraging for them.”
Taking part in the clinic on Sunday was 16-year-old Jesse Smith who said: “I found it very fun and very educational. It was very useful for going forward in swimming.
“I was very excited to meet Chad because I’ve never met anyone famous – he’s an Olympic swimmer and he’s very good and also from South Africa so that makes it very special.
“I learned that even the smallest changes in swimming make big differences in your time and how fast you are, so my technique definitely got sharpened today.”
Coach at Olive Tree Swimming Club Lucia Ruiters said the reason she founded the Olive Tree Swimming Club was to get kids into sport and keep them away from the drugs and violence which are a part of everyday life in Wentworth.
“We are so excited to meet Chad,” said Ruiters. “I’ve had restless nights for two days because this is like a dream. One of the girls was actually shaking, the other one said ‘pinch me’ so it’s really a big thing for us because we’ve watched Chad over the years and we admired him swimming so powerfully.
“We really feel blessed and honoured to be associated with him. I really feel it’s going to get us to the next level of swimming. I feel that we will get the next Chad [from our club] and we will have children coming out, swimming different levels, swimming very well and making a difference,” she added.
“Most of the time you have people doing well in sport concentrating on themselves, but to be able to come out of yourself and realise you need to give what you have to a community that won’t have that opportunity is very humbling. So we are very thankful to Chad. We are very excited.”
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