Chad Le Clos re-lives 2012 win over Michael Phelps: ‘It was a crazy moment’

“Michael was my hero. I loved the guy, worshipped the guy. And then I had to beat the guy.”

It’s been nearly 10 years since South Africa’s Chad Le Clos out-touched swimming legend – and his childhood hero – Michael Phelps in the men’s 200m butterfly at the Olympic Games London 2012.

Le Clos, who recently qualified for his third Olympics in Tokyo 2020, remembers that race like it was yesterday.

“I wouldn’t trade that moment” for anything, Le Clos said in Episode 4 of Time Machine, an original series that takes Olympians back to their biggest achievements. “If I could go back right now in a time machine, I would do that. I want to do that – for real.”

See Olympic Channel