Chad Le Clos inspires a generation
- By Richard Branson -
- Aug 03, 2012
The Olympics is all about inspiring the next generation, and Chad Le Clos is certainly doing that at London 2012.
Millions of people around the globe watched Chad’s heroics in the aquatics centre as he beat swimming legend Michael Phelps to claim gold in the 200m butterfly final.
The whole Le Clos family then captured our hearts as Chad’s dad Bert gave an inspired interview to the BBC, which you can watch above.
”Look at him, he’s beautiful, I love him!” Bert spoke with such emotion and joy, it was wonderful to see.
Virgin Active South Africa has been a crucial supporter of Chad in this Olympic year, and he has endorsed our SWIM programme to help improve swimmers at all levels.
Hi coach, Olympic medallist Ryk Neethling, designed and developed the SWIM programme, and Chad attended the launch earlier this summer.
We look forward to giving Chad a hero’s welcome when he returns to SA after the Olympics. A Learn to Swim initiative is being planned, designed to get anyone – customers and staff - not able to swim over their fear and into the water. Hopefully Chad and Bert will be there to lend a hand.
Chad also has a camera at the Olympics and is taking footage for us of his experiences – let’s hope he has interviewed his dad Bert!
But back to the here and now: Chad swims again in the 100 metres butterfly final tonight. On behalf of all of us at Virgin – and everyone who loves a wonderful story - good luck Chad!
By Richard Branson. Founder of Virgin Group
