Centurion - Four-time Olympic medalist Chad le Clos has revealed he was battling depression while he was competing at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
There was a specific event that triggered his battles with mental health at the beginning of 2021, just months before the Olympics in July. Though Le Clos, who turned 30 last month, has not revealed what actually happened, he did admit to his mental struggles as a result of the incident.
“It’s something I’ll never talk about because it’s not for anybody else to know. But it was something so deep, it was worse than my parents having cancer, and this was worse for them,” Le Clos told New Frame.
In the 100m butterfly at the Tokyo Olympics, Le Clos failed to advance beyond the heats. In the 200m, the event in which he won gold in 2012, he ended fifth in the final.
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In hindsight, Le Clos admitted that his mental health was not where it should have been if he were to produce his best.
“I’ve always prided myself in being a head-strong guy, I’m the man, but I needed someone last year.
“I only started to speak to someone after the Olympics - biggest mistake of my life - and I started getting myself right again. I was in a dark place, even after the Olympics. I was super depressed.
“There were times where I was sitting in my room just crying by myself. I didn’t know why I was like that. It genuinely wasn’t about the Olympics. It was about my future and about me… it felt like I had fallen such a long way from where I was in terms of who I was as a person. It really wasn’t about swimming.”
Since then, Le Clos has sought professional help and hopefully is back on the right track.
“I did some deep therapy last year. I’m okay to talk about it now because I’m actually good. I’m 100% good now compared to last year. Last year I couldn’t talk about anything because I was just a shell of myself.”