Chad Guy Bertrand le Clos, OIS (born 12 April 1992) is a South African competitive swimmer who is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth Games champion.

On the first day of the swimming competition, he won the gold medal and Commonwealth title in the 200-metre butterfly with a Games record time of 1:56.48.

On the 4th day, Le Clos won the gold medal in the 200m butterfly in 1min 52.96 sec, edging out the two-time defending Olympic champion and world record holder, Michael Phelps, by 0.05 seconds.

[15][16] The next day Le Clos qualified for the final of the 200m individual medley by swimming the (tied) 7th time in the semi-finals, but he withdrew to focus on the 100m butterfly.

[22] On the second day of swimming competition, in his first event of the Games, the 50-metre butterfly, Le Clos won the bronze medal in the final with a time of 23.36 seconds, finishing behind gold medalist Ben Proud of England and silver medalist and fellow South African Roland Schoeman.

[43] Le Clos won the silver medal in the 200 metre freestyle event, finishing behind China's Sun Yang in a time of 1:45.20 to become one of South Africa's most decorated Olympians.

[44] The medal itself was quite a surprise for many, as Le Clos, primarily known as a butterfly specialist, had to overcome placement in one of the outside lanes and the presence of far more established freestylers in the field, such as the world record holder Paul Biedermann, reigning world champion James Guy, and the eventual bronze medalist Conor Dwyer.

[47] In the ready room before the preliminary race, Le Clos' shadow boxing while Phelps "glowered in a corner" spawned the Internet meme with the hashtag #PhelpsFace.

[48] Le Clos won a second silver medal in the 100 metre butterfly, in a three-way tie with rivals Phelps and László Cseh, behind Joseph Schooling.

[51] Since the Rio Olympics, Le Clos has repeatedly demanded that his silver medal in 200-meter freestyle swimming be upgraded to gold because of Sun Yang's previous anti-doping violation.

[54] He won another major title in the 200-metre butterfly, beating rival and home-country favourite László Cseh at the 2017 World Aquatic Swimming Championships.

[65][66] In the 100-metre freestyle final on day four, Le Clos faced off against Scottish Olympian Duncan Scott and 2016 Olympic champion in the 100-metre freestyle, Australian Kyle Chalmers, and tied Kyle Chalmers for the silver medal, both finishing only behind Duncan Scott, with a personal best time of 48.15 seconds.

[71][72][73][74][75] On the sixth and final day of competition, he split a 50.10 for the butterfly leg of the 4×100-metre medley relay to help win the bronze medal in a time of 3:34.79.

[77][78] Le Clos set a new African record in the 200 metre butterfly with a time of 1:48.32, which earned him the silver medal in the event.

[79] For the 50 metre butterfly, le Clos won the silver medal with a time of 21.97 seconds, finishing only behind the world record holder in the event Nicholas Santos of Brazil.

Over the season, he had the fourth most points (190.5) of any swimmer behind Emma Mckeon, Caeleb Dressel, and overall MVP (and teammate) Sarah Sjöström.

On 23 July 2021, Le Clos shared the honour of serving as a flag bearer for South Africa, alongside field hockey player Phumelela Mbande, at the Parade of Nations during the opening ceremony of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

[93] In the final of the 200-metre butterfly on day five, he placed fifth with a time of 1:54.93, finishing over three seconds behind the gold medalist in the event, Kristóf Milák of Hungary.

[95] When travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic prevented two of his teammates, Matthew Sates and Tatjana Schoenmaker, from attending and competing at the Championships, Le Clos was not impacted in the same way as he had already left South Africa for the 2021 International Swimming League.

[102] For the semifinals of the event, Le Clos qualified for the final ranked second, ahead of Youssef Ramadan of Egypt and behind Matteo Rivolta of Italy, with a 49.56.

[107] In early 2022, Le Clos announced he withdrew from the competition in the year's Midmar Mile due to missed training after contracting bronchitis.

[109][110] On day one of the 2022 South Africa National Swimming Championships in Gqeberha, 6 April, he swam a 24.18 in the prelims heats of the 50-metre butterfly, qualifying for the final ranking first.

[112][113] On the second day, he made a guest appearance, commentating during the live broadcast of the 400-metre individual medley, including talking about his goal for the Championships of qualifying for his fourth Commonwealth Games and his longer-term goal of becoming the most decorated Commonwealth Games competitor, a feat he would need one more medal to equal.

[114] In the 200-metre butterfly on day three, he achieved a gold medal and a 2022 Commonwealth Games and 2022 World Aquatics Championships qualifying time of 1:55.75.

[120] In June, he was officially named as part of the South Africa team to represent the country in swimming at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

[121] Starting on the first day of swimming competition at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, Le Clos placed 33rd in the 50-metre butterfly preliminaries with a time of 23.86 seconds.

[123] Getting started at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, held in July and August in Birmingham, England, Le Clos achieved a spot in the semifinals of the 50-metre butterfly based on his overall eighth-rank and time of 23.80 seconds in the preliminaries of the event on day one of competition.

[148] Le Clos went three-for-three in the 100-metre butterfly at the third and final stop, in Indianapolis, United States, winning the gold medal with a time of 48.85 seconds.

[149][150][151] The following day, he regained the golden crown in the 200-metre butterfly from Trenton Julian with a time of 1:49.89, winning the event 0.19 seconds faster than the American who won the gold medal ahead of him in Toronto.

[145][154] Day two of six at the 2022 World Short Course Championships, 14 December in Melbourne, Australia, Le Clos placed fifth in the 50 metre butterfly with a time of 22.11 seconds.