In September of this year, South Africa’s King of Butterfly Chad le Clos announced his separation from long-time coach Graham Hill. Now, three months later, Le Clos has selected coached Andrea di Nino to train him. The world-renowned Italian coach, who coached Olympic medalists Milorad Cavic and Evgeny Korotyshkin (Le Clos tied with Korotyshkin for 100m butterfly silver at the 2012 London Olympics) will start immediately.
“I’m excited to be working with Andrea. His coaching record is second-to-none and I look forward to our journey together. I need to continue to improve to achieve my goals in swimming, and Andrea is the perfect person to coach me in this next stage of my career,” Le Clos said via a press release.
Le Clos also announced that Australian Robert Hurley-a world-class freestyler and backstroker- has been appointed as his Performance Manager
“Bobby is a phenomenal athlete in his own right and I’m so pleased that he has chosen to join my team alongside Andrea. Bobby’s drive and work ethic matches my own, so I’m sure our team will produce the results we’re looking for,” said Le Clos.
De Nino is looking forward to working with the 24 year old Le Clos.
“I am delighted to be coaching Chad and think that together we can achieve great things. He has already had a lot of success, but I see his talent, drive and ambition to do more, and I cannot wait to get started.” – De Nino
Hurley will also run the elite/development squads of the new CLC Swimming Academy in Cape Town.
“I can’t wait to start working with Chad and the other talented swimmers who will be based in Cape Town. As I take a break from training to recover from injuries, I look forward to learning more about the sport from a great mind like Andrea, and sharing my knowledge and experience with Chad, and the next generation of swimmers in South Africa,” Hurley commented.
Le Clos first started swimming for Hill when he was just 8 years old, experiencing an unbelievable amount of success under Hill’s tutelage. The South African star quickly became a skilled butterflyer, even taking down the GOAT himself, Michael Phelps, in finals of the men’s 200 butterfly at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
He earned gold medals in both the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly at the 2013 World Championships, repeating his 100-meter butterfly performance at the 2015 World Championships.
At this year’s Olympic Games in Rio le Clos made a name for himself in the 200-meter freestyle when he grabbed the silver medal with a time of 1:45.20, which now stands as a South African record. Despite finishing off the podium in the 200-meter butterfly, le Clos rebounded to finish in a historical three-way tie with Phelps and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary.
That’s great Andrea Di Nino congrats !