A lucky charm brought no luck to Chad Le Clos as the South African was eliminated from the men's 100 metres butterfly heats at the Paris Olympics on Friday, but his ambition of going on to the next Games in Los Angeles remained undimmed.
The 32-year-old was 24th of 40 swimmers in the heats, 2.05 seconds slower than Hungary's leader Kristof Milak and well out of the top 16 spot that would have earned him a spot in the semifinals.
Le Clos, the 2012 200 butterfly champion, recognised it would have taken a superhuman effort on his part to go further in the event at his fourth Olympics.
Chad le Clos' swim in the Men's 100m Butterfly heat two 🇿🇦
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) August 2, 2024
Despite being the third oldest male swimmer at #Paris2024, he finishes second 👏
Unfortunately, he misses out on qualification for the semi-finals. pic.twitter.com/QlFk6Rw2Bo
He was carrying an injury sustained in a freak accident in a training warm-up in Germany, where a young girl jumped into his pool lane while he was still underwater, pulling his shoulder and neck as he hurriedly stopped.
"I tried my best. It's been a tough couple of weeks, but hey, no excuses," he told reporters.
"On my best day, it would have been tough to hang with these boys, so fair play to them.
"I had an MRI scan three days ago, you know. I wasn't supposed to be swimming today. I got a grade two tear on the upper trap. I had that four weeks ago."
Le Clos, who beat US great Michael Phelps to gold with a spectacular swim in London and who also has three silvers, still wants to be the first South African to reach five Olympics in 2028.
He said he had another scan booked for later on Friday and would turn his focus to the short-course season and his target of breaking US swimmer Ryan Lochte's all-time medal record there.
"This was unfortunately not a fair reflection on the preparation I put in, you know. So, we'll go home, we'll do some rehab," he said.
"We'll see what happens in L.A. Look, I'd like to continue. Sometimes it's not my choice. I'm not here for the T-shirt."
Le Clos retrieved a lucky charm with his London title-winning time (1:52.96) on it from his kit box after the race, reflecting ruefully that it had not worked any magic.
"I keep it in my hand, I walk out with it. I'm a bit of an idiot that way with superstitions, you know. But it is what it is. Not today."