![]() ![]() “I hadn't slept properly for six, seven months. “The world is so small now, everyone can share their opinions with and about you, and it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with your own thoughts.” “It's a big problem, because society today has different hurdles to overcome, like social media, which wasn’t around 20, 25 years ago. That's the kind of mentality we come from here. “You roll your sleeves up, and if you get cuts, you rub dirt on them. We don't speak about anything to do with not being a tough guy,” Le Clos continued. “As a South African man, talking about our feelings is not traditionally what we do. Males, and particularly African males, culturally didn’t speak about mental health. Then there was the stigma around the subject to overcome. Le Clos shocks Phelps in 200m Butterfly | London 2012 Replays Overcoming the mental health stigmaĪdmitting that he was struggling was difficult for Le Clos.Īfter so many years of being revered as a real-life superhero, the Durban-born athlete initially tried to deny to himself that anything was wrong. In recognition of World Mental Health Day on 10 October, sat down with Le Clos to hear about his darkest day, the journey back to happiness, and why he feels more connected to Phelps than ever. “It was a terrible cliche that had to change.” I put on a facade of being happy as I thought that talking about mental health made me look weak. “It was hard for me because I'm really proud of my achievements and being strong mentally. I even had close friends that didn’t take my problems seriously,” Le Clos told for World Mental Health Day 2022. ”To the normal person I have a great life, right? But they couldn’t see the struggles. Over the next eight years, Le Clos built a reputation as one of the most consistent performers in the world, breaking world records, winning two more Olympic silvers at Rio 2016, and dominating world championships with his ultra-competitive mindset.īut in 2020, an incident that he isn’t yet ready to talk about occurred, that caused him to spiral into a deep depression ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He also picked up silver in the 100m butterfly. It all started at the London 2012 Olympics, where the South African upset significant odds to beat the greatest swimmer of all time, Michael Phelps, in the 200m butterfly final. Chad le Clos used to think that he had unbreakable mental strength, and so did everyone else. ![]()
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