{"id":41149,"date":"2026-07-30T17:03:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41149"},"modified":"2026-07-30T17:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:10:11","slug":"sas-le-clos-sets-new-record-medal-count-for-commonwealth-games","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-le-clos-sets-new-record-medal-count-for-commonwealth-games\/","title":{"rendered":"SA\u2019s Le Clos sets new record medal count for Commonwealth Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Veteran South African (SA) swimmer Chad le Clos won a 21st Commonwealth Games medal late on Wednesday to overtake Australia\u2019s Emma McKeon as \u200bthe most decorated athlete in the Games\u2019 history.<\/div>\n<div>The 34-year-old swam \u200cthe butterfly leg as SA took bronze in the men\u2019s 4&#215;100 medley relay for his third of the 2026 Games after silver in the mixed 4&#215;100 medley \u200band bronze in the men\u2019s 4&#215;100 freestyle relay.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>His record tally is \u200bmade up of seven golds, five silvers and nine bronzes \u2060across the last five Games, starting in Delhi in 2010 at the \u200bage of 18 where he earned five medals, and then followed by \u200bseven medals in Glasgow in 2014.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He continued with five more on the Gold Coast in 2018 and one in Birmingham four years ago.<\/div>\n<div>\u201cIt was emotional, but I think those \u200bfirst two medals (in Glasgow 2026) were just a little bit more just \u200bbecause I had to get over the hump and tonight I just had to \u200cstay \u2060cool and bring it home,\u201d he said <span dir=\"ltr\">after Wednesday\u2019s<\/span> relay.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe way the boys and girls swam they swam their hearts out. They kept saying \u2018we\u2019re doing this for Chad\u2019 before they walked down and it just means the world \u200bto me.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Le Clos is \u200balso an Olympic \u2060champion. He stunned the sporting world when he pipped Michael Phelps by 0.05 seconds to win the 200m \u200bbutterfly gold at the <span dir=\"ltr\">2012 London<\/span> Games.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>At the time, \u200bAmerican icon \u2060Phelps was a 14-time Olympic champion and he had not lost in the event since 2001.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Le Clos won medals at the Olympics in Rio in 2016 \u2060and \u200bhas since competed in Tokyo and Paris. He \u200bhas previously said he hopes to qualify for his fifth Olympics in Los Angeles in \u200btwo years\u2019 time.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41153,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-41149","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The 34-year-old swam \u200cthe butterfly leg as SA took bronze in the men\u2019s 4x100 medley relay.","published_date":"","news_description":"The 34-year-old swam \u200cthe butterfly leg as SA took bronze in the men\u2019s 4x100 medley relay.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41151,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41149\/revisions\/41151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}